Page 40 – Chasing the Wow

Trip to Port Arthur

Port Arthur is the most infamous of British penal colonies as it was the destination for the most hardened criminals, re-offenders after having been transported to Australia, and for the physiological techniques used to try and discipline prisoners.

For these reasons, it was acknowledged as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2010 and many of the original buildings from the mid 1800s remain in good condition. In addition to its infamous reputation, Port Arthur is also synonymous with the 1996 Massacre when one man shot and killed 35 people in what is still Australia’s worst mass shooting.

Not a bad trip and only 1.5 hours from Hobart, but its fairly down the list of Tasmania experiences and only a nice to visit if you have extra time. For the biggest wow experiences in Tasmania and general tips on how to get the best out of a trip there, see the Tasmania 10 day roadtrip entry.

Wineglass Bay in Freycinet National Park

Regularly voted one of the world’s best beaches, Wineglass Bay within Freycinet National Park is about as perfect a setting for a beach as you can get and the highlight beach for Tasmania.

It’s a bit difficult to access – which makes sure that tourist numbers aren’t hectic on the beach itself – but you can easily walk the 30mins or so from the main road car park up to the Wineglass bay lookout that will give you the famous view.

Biggest tip though – continue on to the beach. We turned back at the lookout because it looked quite a way further to get to the beach and had run out of time that day. But it’s only another 30-45mins walk to the beach and, looking back, it needs to be done.

Tasmazia and the Village of Lower Crackpot

A bit cheesy, but really good fun. Tasmazia features 8 mazes, one of which is The Great Maze which used to be the world’s largest; a cute model village in the centre called Lower Crackpot; and all within the quite stunning backdrop of Cradle Mountain and the Tasmanian Lake District.

Surprisingly good fun getting lost in amongst it all, and make sure to fill yourself up on the giant pancakes in the cafe.

Macquarie Harbour Tasmania – fishing, sailing, trains and hiking

Some may be a bit surprised as to why Macquarie Harbour gets into the maximum Wow-factor category of ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️, especially considering the world-class travel experiences its shares this with. West Coast Tasmania isn’t an obvious choice, and it’s not trying to compete on postcard beauty, but when you step back and look at rarity, scale, history and access, Macquarie Harbour stands apart. To explain, consider a few factors:

1. The Tasmanian Wilderness Area is the world’s #1 UNESCO World Heritage site – yes, you read that right. Macquarie Harbour sits within the Tasmanian Wilderness Area, the isolated south west part of Tasmania that has gained UNESCO World Heritage Status. In order to gain World Heritage status a site must meet 1 of the 10 UNESCO criteria for outstanding universal value, of which there are 6 for cultural and 4 for natural. The Tasmania Wilderness Area meets 7 of those 10 criteria (4 cultural and 3 natural)- along with Tai Shan in China (see its travel entry here – Climbing Tai Shan for sunrise), it has the highest measurement of any site globally.

Visiting the islands near Macquarie Harbour in style on the Gordon River Cruise

2. World class ways to see the area – the Gordon River Cruise (www.gordonrivercruises.com.au) the West Coast Wilderness Railway (www.wcwr.com.au) must-dos for the area and allow you to see the harbour and hidden abandoned logging towns in style. And they do it to a level of service quality that is a pleasant surprise considering how much in the wilderness you are. Add to that the fishing from Hell’s Gates where the second largest harbour in the southern hemisphere empties into the ocean and the wonderful hiking nearby, and you have some incredible activities to help you see the area.

Taking the Coast Wilderness Railway train to explore the interior by Macquarie Harbour

3. Fewer fellow tourists – whether it’s the 4 hour driving distance from the major towns of Hobart or Launceston, the worry about the infamous Tasmania weather, or just that Tasmania in general doesn’t get huge tourist numbers, you will find relatively few fellow tourists for such a big area.

The drive over from Hobart to Strahan sees you drive through some of the most remote parts of non-Outback Australia

4. It is a place of wonderful natural extremes – the harbour is huge (more than six times the size of Sydney Harbour), the trees are super tall (Tasmania has 5 of the top 10 tallest tree species in the world), the rainwater and river water is the purest in the world . . . and the sun’s UV rating is often the strongest in the world (yep, wear sunscreen).

Road sign for one of those more famous extremes – the Tasmanian Devil, which has the strongest bite force per weight among all mammal carnivores.

5. Super colourful – the lush greens of the rainforest, the whites of the sand, the multicoloured water with its tannins giving dark browns, reds and crystal clear. Just beautiful.

One of the sunsets from Strahan across part of Macquarie Harbour

3 days basing yourself in Strahan – a truly wonderful experience at the edge of the world and crushes the Wow-factor.

Top tip – go in summer! So much of the enjoyment was based on the bright blue skies

Visiting Harbin and the Siberian Tiger Park

For sure the main reason to go to Harbin is to brave the freezing January winter temperatures and enjoy the word famous ice sculptures, but it’s also worth a day or so outside of the winter period to enjoy the central Daoliqu district’s Russian influence and, in particular, the very unusual Siberian Tiger Park.

The Tiger Park itself, like so many things in China, has a good and a bad side:

The good side – it’s great that the Chinese are approaching the preservation of tigers, and various other large cats who are threatened in the wild, at such a giant scale. To give an idea – there are estimated to only be around 500 Siberian Tigers left in the wild, and the park has 800 in captivity. It’s also great, and should be highlighted more, that the park itself is huge at 250 acres, with many of the tigers free to roam in this area.
The downside – very predictable. The Chinese pay very little attention to animal welfare, so some of the rarer cats are held in far smaller cages and the tigers are fed live animals in a fairly gruesome show for the tourists.

Without straying too far down a moral route here and recommending not visiting, I think it’s worth calling out that any visit to China will be littered with examples whereby you find conflicts between Chinese values and non-Chinese values. And this is certainly not restricted to animal welfare.

My suggestion is that if you are in the area, do make sure you give yourself half a day in Harbin to see the wonderful brick-lined street of Zhongyan Dajie in the Daoliqu district where you can clearly see the Russian influence, the Sun Island Park that sits within the 2 sides of the city, and half a day for the Tiger Park to see the scale of this Chinese experiment.

Climbing Changbai Shan’s Heaven Lake in late Autumn

On the border with North Korea, Changbai Shan is China’s largest nature reserve and by far the top attraction in the surrounding region.

The park itself is beautifully rugged with bitch trees and pine trees eventually making way to a far more sparse other-worldly landscape once you get above 2000m / 6500ft. But it is the walk up the north slope to the Heaven Lake sitting 2,200m / 7200ft on the top of Paektu Mountain that is the highlight.

The mountain, little know outside of this part of the world, is an important mythological and cultural symbol for parts of China and certainly for Korea. For example, it is in both North and South Korea’s national anthems and is on the national emblem of the North.

We visited here at the slightly unusual time of mid October which, because the place is waiting to make its transition from summer visitors to opening up for those visiting the ski slopes later in the year, certainly made it a bit harder to reach and in particular harder to find a place open. The flip side was that it felt we had the walk up to the Heaven Lake almost all to ourselves, which made for a quite unique experience.

Top tip – try to stay at the Lanjing Spa Holiday Inn which is only 500m from the north gate entrance. It has a feeling of being secluded to very much adds to the otherworldly feel. Most likely at this time of year you’ll be able to get a discount. No worries if can’t get a spot there, you can stay in Baihe and just get a taxi for 40mins or so to the entrance gate.

The Terracotta Warriors in Xian

One of the most sensational archeological discoveries in history, the Terracotta Warriors just outside of Xian are one of the most famous places to visit on a trip to China and certainly worth the trip to the west.

There are so many fascinating pieces of information about these warriors:

Their age – 210 BC – before Rome was an imperial power.
Their mystery – their existence was just a legend until they were only discovered in 1974 by peasants drilling a well.
Their unique nature – each of the 8,000 warriors has his own distinct expression.

But it is their sheer scale that impresses more than anything as you look across line after line of the warriors from the viewpoint.

Tip – Xian is often just passed through on a tour of China as a transit to get to the warriors. This is an error – Xian is an origin point of Chinese civilisation and the start of the Silk Road ,so is arguably the essential destination if interested in Chinese history. Even if not, the Big Goose Pagoda, cycling along the 14km City Walls and eating in the Muslim Quarter are definitely worth the time.

Three gorges cruise down the Yangzi River

Taking a boat down the Yangzi River through the heart of China is a great, if very Chinese, experience.

The Yangzi is the longest and mightiest river in China, and the 3rd longest in the world. This part of the trip focuses only on the journey from Chongqing – a giant of a city with 31m people – to Yichang further to the east in a route that is around 20km and takes around 40 hours / 3 nights (leaving Chongqing in the evening).

The impossibly steep sides of the canyons, the beauty of the Little Three Gorges, and the ghost towns formed by the world’s largest dam make this a truly unforgettable experience. Truly mega wow. The only reason it doesn’t get the top wow score is just how busy it gets. But, hey, that makes it a true Chinese experience!

Tip #1 – take time to shop around for the right cruise companies

You’ve broadly got two categories of options:

International cruise companies – high level standard and expect to pay US$500-US$800 for a cabin in 2025 prices.
Local cruise companies – 100% catered towards the Chinese market. This means public tannoy systems, early starts, the classic megaphone-flag-style tours and typically more crowded. Bear in mind that the average Chinese person has ZERO understanding of personal space) compared to what you are used to.

We went with the local boat option because we were living in China at the time, a bit money conscious and wanted the full blown experience. On balance, I’d say that if you can afford it, go with the international cruise company. I’m hesitant to say it is “better”, but you’ll most likely have a more relaxing and serene experience . . . without the megaphones and not having to wait for your ears to recover.

Tip #2 – triple check what you are paying for with the cruise company.

The key things to check are:

Individual tickets to the individual temples along the way – they are a bit dull and samesy after a while and you can buy the tickets when there.
If the cruise includes a trip through the Little Three Gorges – the international ones will, but the local Chinese ones will often expect you to have arranged and paid for it.

The route map down the Three Gorges – from Chongqing to Yichang

Day trip to Wuxi from Shanghai

“With rich natural and cultural heritage, Wuxi is one of the top ten tourist cities in China” – Wikitravel. No idea who wrote that, but they obviously haven’t been to Wuxi! Or perhaps own a struggling hotel there!

Very little to see that would be of interest to a tourist. Basically a medium sized Chinese city with no particularly redeeming features. Don’t bother – spend your time instead in some of the magnificent experiences that can be found throughout the rest of China, or just stay in Shanghai.

The sights of Shanghai in a day

It was such a long time ago that I last visited Shanghai, that I won’t write a full entry for the city. Only to say that its a must if visiting China.

It won’t be the classical China you were likely expecting – it will be far more than that as this city typifies the modern day China of brash, sophisticated and full of energy. It’s not an exaggeration to say that Shanghai at times feels like New York City on steroids as it rapidly catches up on just about every metric you can think of . . . and now thinking about it in 2026, has zoomed past it.

Obviously its always better to have more time, but I reckon you could blast the highlights of Shanghai in a day – leaving yourself with some appetite for seeing the rest Shanghai has to offer when you return. The things I really recommend focusing on are listed below.