On the edge of the Tibetan Plateau

The landscape of the great plateau of Tibet is one of desolate beauty. In the high altitudes prevailing there - 4000 meters and more - virtually no trees grow and little vegetation clothes the rugged terrain. Due to the transparency of the rarefied air colours reach the eye with unfiltered intensity: reds, browns, yellows, purples, blues. Climate is unpredictable and always prone to extremes of heat and cold.

May 2016 | Kham Region, Sichuan Province, China

Tagong

Tagong in Tibetan language means 'the favourite place of Bodhisattva'. At about 3800 meters the Tagong grassland is located in the Eastern Tibet. It is a vast expanse of meadow lying beneath the sacred Yala Mountain 5820 m. Tagong is a very wild-west kind of Khampa town with villages, monasteries, Buddhism College, horses and yaks.

May 2016 | Tagong, Sichuan Province, China

Shangri-la

Situated in the north western corner of Yunnan province, Shangri-la is one of the most biologically and culturally rich, but least economically privileged areas of the world. At the heart of the UNESCO world heritage site of the Parallel Rivers (Yangtze, Mekong and Salween), the Greater Shangri-la region is of global ecological importance, not only as the site of some of the earth’s most diverse ecosystems but also as an important resource to much of the population in Asia, who rely on these great rivers for their livelihood.

Hundreds of endemic plants are found in this region, such as the oleander and the indigenous tsi-tog, as are dozens of endemic animal and bird species including several Class I protected: the Yunnan Golden Monkey, Snow Leopard, Red Panda, and Black-necked Crane. Shangri-la is also home to many different ethnic groups and a rich cultural diversity. For generations, many of these ethnic groups including Tibetans, Lisu, Yi and Naxi among others, have lived in harmony with the landscape and natural environment, drawing on indigenous knowledge, traditional practices and Buddhist environmental philosophies. Yet, as Shangri-la begins to open up and develop into an international tourist destination, its communities are faced with serious environmental and economic pressures making the conservation of this region more critical then ever before.

February 2016 | Shangri-la, Yunnan Province, China

Tiger Leaping Gorge

Located in Southwest China the mighty Yangtze River surges through the white-capped Haba and Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, creating a spectacular river canyon that rates as one of the world's deepest. According to local legend a tiger leapt 25 meters across the river to escape humans, lending its name to Tiger Leaping Gorge. The inhabitants of the gorge are primarily the Naxi people, an ethnic group, originally from northwestern China, migrating south toward Tibetan populated regions.

January 2016 | Tiger Leaping Gorge, Yunnan Province, China

People of the death railway

During World War 2, the Japanese used Allied prisoners of war to build a railway from Thailand to Burma so they could supply their army without the dangers of sending supplies by sea.  Many prisoners died under appalling conditions during construction and the line became known as the 'Death Railway'.  It was immortalised in David Lean's 1957 film The Bridge on the River Kwai which centres around one of the line's main engineering feats, the bridge across the Kwae Yai river just north of Kanchanaburi.  Although the film was shot in Sri Lanka, the Bridge on the River Kwai really exists, and still carries regular local passenger trains from Bangkok as far as Nam Tok.

May 2015 | Kanchananburi, Thailand

Puez-Geisler (o delle Odle)

The Puez-Geisler/Puez-Odle Nature Park, which covers an area of 10,722 hectares, can be described as the “building site of the Dolomites.” Geologists can observe all of the rock types, tectonic upheavals and erosion forms typical of the Dolomites. The upper reaches of the Park include desert-like karst plateaus, fertile Alpine pastures, bizarrely jagged peaks, majestic rock walls. The deep gorges carved out by erosion and dense forests of conifers offer a kaleidoscope of landscape forms rarely found in such a limited area.

January 2015 | Dolomiti, Italy