Photography Tours & Trips in Far East

Visit the UNESCO-listed Forbidden City to see its golden rooftops and intricate dragon carvings, then head to Zhangjiajie National Forest Park to photograph the karst pillars that inspired Avatar's floating mountains. Catch sunrise from Tianzi Mountain's Natural Great Wall viewpoint and photograph the 430-meter Yuntiandu Glass Bridge hanging above the Grand Canyon. See the 8,000 life-sized Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an's excavation pits and photograph Shanghai's Bund skyline during a Huangpu River cruise at golden hour.

Watch the sunrise over the Singing Sand Dunes near Crescent Moon Spring in Dunhuang, photograph the intricate Buddhist carvings at the Longmen Caves in Luoyang, and frame the Flaming Mountains' red sandstone ridges near Turpan. Capture traditional life during tricycle rides through Beijing's historic Hutong neighborhoods and photograph Shanghai's Pudong skyline from The Bund.

You'll photograph the quartzite pillars of Zhangjiajie National Forest Park rising 1,000 meters above misty valleys, the same UNESCO-listed Hallelujah Mountains that inspired Disney's Avatar. Ride the Tianzi Mountain cable car for aerial shots, then capture the natural rock arch of Tianmen Shan's Heavenly Gate as sunlight streams through. Float on a bamboo raft down the Li River past towering karst mountains near Yangshuo, where poets and painters have sought inspiration for centuries.

Photograph Ban Gioc Waterfall's 300-metre cascade along the Vietnam-China border and capture the karst formations surrounding Ba Be Lake. Frame the 500-million-year-old prehistoric cave and rare hardwood trees during your rainforest hike through Ba Be National Park. Document traditional Nung blacksmiths at work in Phuoc Sen village and shoot the stalactite formations inside the 2,144-metre Nguom Ngao Cave.

Get shots of Fushimi Inari Shrine's 10,000 vermillion torii gates in Kyoto, then photograph Mt. Fuji's silhouette from Lake Kawaguchiko during a scenic boat ride. Head to Miyajima Island to capture the iconic floating Torii Gate at Itsukushima-jinja Shrine and walk through Arashiyama's towering Bamboo Grove for natural light photography. The haunting serenity of Okunoin Cemetery at Mount Koya offers unique spiritual photography opportunities, while the ancient stone Buddha at UNESCO-listed Seokguram Grotto in Gyeongju provides another compelling subject.

Head to Quang Phu Cau Incense Village to photograph vibrant crimson incense bundles drying in the sun, a century-old tradition that creates beautiful contrasts against classical Vietnamese architecture. Stop at a local dyeing family's drying yard and tour the largest incense factory where you can photograph artisans crafting incense from scratch. Finish at Hanoi's iconic Train Street in the Old Quarter, where trains pass within inches of colorful shopfronts.

Take Japan's most iconic shot at Arakurayama Sengen Park, where the five-story Chureito Pagoda frames Mount Fuji against the sky. Photograph the bamboo forest in Arashiyama and the thousands of vermillion torii gates at Fushimi Inari Shrine in Kyoto. Shoot the golden reflections of Kinkakuji Temple across its gardens, interact with free-roaming deer at Todaiji Temple in Nara, and frame the cascading 20-meter-high Shiraito Falls near Mount Fuji.

Photograph sunrise over UNESCO-listed Angkor Wat and capture Ta Prohm Temple's jungle-covered ruins where massive root systems grow over ancient stones. You'll have opportunities to shoot the Japanese Covered Bridge in Hoi An's lantern-lit Old Town, the Imperial Citadel in Hue, and the Hai Van Pass overlooking Lang Co fishing village. Ride a cyclo through Hanoi's 36 Streets district and photograph the One Pillar Pagoda, plus traditional water puppet shows that reflect rural Vietnamese life.