Hone your crack and multipitch skills in the birthplace of crack climbing in China.

Nestled in southwest China on the eastern periphery of Himalaya, Yunnan Province is the superlative of many things in the country: the province with the richest diversity of wildlife, the most ethnically diverse part of the country, AND the only place where granite, 2 types of sandstone, and limestone are available to climb within 40 miles of one another. Yunnan is possibly the best region for rock climbing in the entire country.

Yunnan is home to Liming, China’s birthplace of traditional crack climbing. Its sandstone cliffs rising up from the pine forests like a jungle version of Utah’s Zion National Park. And it is one of the few places in the country that hosts a true, homegrown movement for traditional and adventure climbing. The region also plays host to Baiyansi, one of the country’s few accessible big walls, where you can hone your adventure climbing skills on an incredible granite mountain just a stone’s throw from glaciated Himalayan peaks.

But what makes Yunnan such a draw is not just its climbing, it is also your chance to experience a window into cultures and landscapes far-removed from what many travelers think of when they envision “traveling to China.” Far from the mega-cities of the east, Yunnan is still filled with towns and villages populated by ethnic minorities in some ways more similar to Southeast Asia. Different languages and different cuisines abound in a region always filled with something new for you to discover.