WUZHEN, CHINA - On a Mid-Autumn Festival morning, the residents of this ancient Yangtze River Delta water town are up early getting ready to welcome the hordes of weekend tourists.

TOTTORI - Japan is recognized for having the world’s longest life expectancy, so it is not surprising that its people are slight in stature and often look younger than their years.

SHAOYANG, CHINA - It has been a long, tiring day: lots of shopping and sightseeing in Shanghai, then a two-hour flight to Changsha, followed by a two-hour bus ride on bumpy back roads to reach this outpost in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

TOTTORI, JAPAN - Visiting Tottori feels like you’ve entered a magic forest. The purity of the air, the beauty of the mountains and the trees fantastically-coloured trees of reds, yellows and greens are complemented by small villages and quaint farmhouses with persimmons and daikon radishes hanging out to dry.

KARUIZAWA, JAPAN - Excitement builds in Car 8 as the Shinkansen (bullet train) rumbles out of Tokyo Station. The usually reserved elderly Japanese are in a festive mood; lively chatter and laughter fills the car as the high-speed train whizzes past the lush rice fields that dominate the countryside just outside the capital.

JIA BOA, CHINA - Getting lost in an ancient walled village is okay, especially if you’re lost in one of China’s best preserved private residences, once owned by a bean curd baron back in the Qing Dynasty.

TOKYO - When we reach the landmark Nihonbashi Bridge that crosses Tokyo’s fabled river of the same name, we find ourselves standing in the centre of Japan, literally.

PUDONG, CHINA - The closest most foreigners get to this futuristic city, whose skyline looks like it jumped off the pages of a sci-fi comic book, is from the observation boardwalk on the Shanghai side of the Huangpu River.

HONG KONG - While strolling through the forest of glass and steel towers that have taken root in this bustling world city, I discovered a “house.

UPPER MUSTANG, NEPAL - King Angun Tenzing Trandul’s eyes are clouded by cataracts, perhaps from spending much of his 79 years in dim kerosene-smoked rooms. But those eyes, which have witnessed countless changes during his reign, flicker with warmth when his interpreter tells him we are from Canada.