Newest in Asia & The Pacific
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a remarkable place: a landlocked country of towering mountains, fertile valleys and forests that cover more than 70% of its territory. It’s also a nation rich in cultural heritage.
147 stories
In Maori, Rakiura means “Land of Glowing Skies.” Brilliant sunrises and sunsets mark the tranquil days on Rakiura, also known as Stewart Island, while its location at 47° south latitude makes it a potential viewing spot for the aurora australis, or Southern Lights.
In New Zealand, Maori legends that tell the tales of how the landscape came to be abound. One such story describes a giant supernatural creature whose body ignited in flames while he slept, creating an S-shaped trough thousands of feet deep.
Because it remained relatively isolated from the rest of the world for so many centuries, Bhutan is still a country shrouded in mystery and legend. It officially opened to international tourism only fairly recently, in 1974.
Snow leopards, elusive “ghosts of the mountains,” roam across a vast area of northern and central Asia’s high mountains, mostly above the tree line up to 18,000 feet elevation, sparsely scattered across 12 countries—including China, Bhutan, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Russia and Mongolia.
Sustainable travel in Vietnam supports cultural heritage by directing visitor experiences and economic benefits toward artisans, tradition-keepers and communities preserving the country’s living traditions.
A tigress steps through a forest in northeast China, followed by five striped cubs. The camera trap footage lasts only moments, but it tells a story decades in the making. Amur tigers, commonly known as Siberian tigers, typically give birth to one to four cubs, making a surviving litter of five exceptional.
For millennia, the snow leopard has roamed the mountains of Central Asia among blue sheep, ibex, marmots, pikas and hares. Its thick white-gray coat, patterned with dark rosettes, provides camouflage against steep slopes, broken cliffs and snow-covered ridges. The snow leopard’s range extends across roughly 770,000 square miles in 12 countries.
By Senior Adventure Specialist John Holahan The morning sun crested the eastern ridge of the Sham Valley, warming the contents of its path. It peered through windows, past half-closed curtains, and pried sleeping eyes from the last bits of dreaming. Legs stretched, fingers wiggled, bodies stirred.
Along India’s northern edge, the fertile floodplains of the sub-Himalayan Shivalik hills spread south from the Nepali border, with deciduous sal forests, marshy grasslands, rivers and wetlands. Tigers and swamp deer move through tall grass. Elephants cross forest and farmland.
Growing up, there were always cats in the house. The domestic kind, of course. Those seemingly mild-mannered creatures curled up in your lap that can suddenly morph into wild things that attack your hand or inexplicably zoom around the house.
Siguniangshan National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is steeped in mysticism, a realm of glassy lakes, ancient cypress forests and sacred pagodas. The towering Mount Siguniang, also known as Four Sisters Mountain, looms over verdant valleys, alpine meadows and murmuring streams, earning the area its reputation as the “Chinese Alps.”
Visit Lake Moeraki, and witness the movements of some of the world’s rarest species. This is a destination for nature lovers, active travelers and anyone seeking wild New Zealand! The mountain range that runs the length of New Zealand’s South Island marks the contact zone of the Indo-Australian and Pacific continental plates.
