Pakistan is the difficult child of South Asia – blessed with abundant natural and historical riches, but plagued by political instability, which has kept the country off the radar for all but the most hardened explorers. Mughals and Mountains With armed groups targetting everyone from the government to mountaineers, visitor numbers to Pakistan have slowed to a trickle, which is a shame, as this remains one of Asia's most fascinating destinations. The teeming cities of the south lie on a continuum with the ancient cities of northern India, while the rugged north is a wild frontier that has changed only superficially...

Religion in Malaysia Malaysia's official religion is Islam and 60% of the population are Muslim, but the country also has Hindu and Buddhist populations. Chinese Malaysians also follow Taoist and Confucianist traditions and tribal people in Borneo and other remote areas following traditional animist beliefs. Social Conventions in Malaysia Social conventions in Malaysia are dictated by religion and culture, with different norms amongst Muslim Malays, Indian Hindus and followers of Chinese religions. The catch-all greeting in Bahasa Melayu is selamat, but Malays are more likely to use the Arabic phrase assalamualaikum, meaning 'peace be with you'. The standard title for Malay men...

The original places of Chinese civilization are the well-known Yellow River as well as Yangtze River. The footprint of Chinese people along these two rivers shows the valuable history of this aged country. Legends about Pangu, the earliest ancestor of Chinese people, was taken as the creator of the universe, and a succession of legendary sage-emperors and culture heroes (among them are Huang Di, Yao, and Shun) who taught the ancient Chinese to communicate and to find sustenance, clothing, and shelter. Ancient Dynasties Xia: The first prehistoric dynasty is said to be Xia from about the twenty-first to the sixteenth century B.C....

China. The name alone makes you want to get packing. It's going places, so jump aboard, go along for the ride and see where it's headed. Breathtaking Antiquity Its modern face is dazzling, but China is no one-trick pony. The world's oldest continuous civilisation isn't all smoked glass and brushed aluminium and while you won't be tripping over artefacts – three decades of round-the-clock development and rash town planning have taken their toll – rich seams of antiquity await. Serve it all up according to taste: collapsing sections of the Great Wall, temple-topped mountains, villages that time forgot, languorous water towns,...

Located in Southeast Asia along the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, China is the world's third largest country, after Russia and Canada. With an area of 9.6 million square kilometers and a coastline of 18,000 kilometers, its shape on the map is like a rooster. It reaches Mohe in Heilongjiang Province as its northern end, Zengmu Ansha (or James Shoal) to the south, Pamirs to the west, and expands to the eastern border at the conjunction of the Heilongjiang (Amur) River and the Wusuli (Ussuri) River, spanning about 50 degrees of latitude and 62 degrees of longitude. China is bordered...

India, officially the Republic of India (Bhārat Gaṇarājya),is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country (with over 1.2 billion people), and the most populous democracy in the world. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Myanmar and Bangladesh to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives....