Paul Craven

It’s time to embrace the cold and discover Uzbekistan’s Silk Road cities at their quietest. Travel from Samarkand to Bukhara and Khiva this December in the company of author Chris Aslan, who spent seven years living in Uzbekistan. Your route takes in the mosques, mausoleums and madrasas that have called to travellers for generations, as well as the lives and traditions continuing around them today. “Uzbekistan is having a moment,” says Chris.

Time flies. I was a backpacker in China in 1983. Two currencies, no food after 6 pm, the high rise skyline of Pudong in Shanghai was rice paddies, there were no cars (all bicycles and lorries that were often broken down along the roads) and everyone was dressed in Mao suits. The Terracotta Warriors at this time were housed under a metal framed fabricated building to protect them from the elements. No photographs were allowed but a few sneaky ones were taken at waist height on small film cameras.

I have just returned from a trip taking in some of the most popular places to be visited by the first time traveller to China; Beijing, Xian, Guilin (Yangshuo) and Shanghai, plus Chengdu, home of the Giant Panda. With such iconic sites come the inevitable crowds but I have found a few ways to view some of these amazing sites without the masses. As such here are my suggestions of how to avoid the masses and experience China a little differently.