Drone Videos of Western China

Contributor Sjoerdbracke used a DJI Mavic Pro drone to create this epic video of one of China's most famous canyons.  The Zhangjiajie Canyon is in a national park of the same name in Hunan, an inland province in the southeastern part of the country.  Giant quartz pillars sprout from the canyon floor, some of which are over 1k meters (almost 3.6k ft.) high.   It's one of the top tourist destinations in southern China and was a shooting location for the 2009 film Avatar, the all-time movie box-office champion.

Contributor borje_xy created this spectacular aerial video of China's Huangguoshu Falls, one of the most famous waterfalls in Asia.  The falls are situated on the Baishui River (a Yangtze tributary) near the city of Ansun in Guizhou, an interior province in the south-central part of the country.  The waterfall is 83 meters (273 ft.) wide and has a total drop of 78 meters or about 255 ft.  The Huangguoshu Waterfall is known particularly well for the different vistas from which it can be viewed.  

Yunnan is a province in southwestern China, in the area of Asia where the Himalayan region transitions to Southeast Asia.  It sits at the crossroads of several nations, cultures, and religions.  This video, which was nominated for the 2017 Drone Video Awards in the "People" category, gives you an incredible tour of this mountainous region.  Using a combination of drone footage and ground footage, you will get an indelible impression of a magical land, which borders Tibet.

Although China is the world's most populous country, most of its 1.2 billion inhabitants live on or near the coast.  Parts of the vast interior of the country are much less densely populated.  One of these is the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, which sits in the north-central part of the country and which was once part of the Gansu Province.  Contributor Mattcoq traveled to Ninxia with a DJI Phantom 3 drone, creating a spectacular aerial video of this land which features landscapes ranging from mountains to desert.   

Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China, and was one of the four so-called Ancient Capitals of China.  In modern times, it is known as the site of the Xi'an Incident of 1936, during the runup to World War II.  Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek was detained here and forced to adopt a policy of cooperation with the Chinese Communist Party to resist ongoing incursions by Japan.  The policy ultimately helped to prevent Japanese hegemony in China, albeit at tremendous cost in Chinese lives.

Contributor and FPV pilot Sharpwest created this unbelievable video from China's Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in the Hunan Province.  China's first national park, it's known for its gigantic stone (quartzite) pillars.  Famously, these pillars (in computer-enhanced form) were used as the primary backdrop for James Cameron's epic sci-fi blockbuster Avatar (2009), by considerable margin the highest grossing movie of all time.  In this video, you'll see them from the perspective of an FPV racing drone!    

Check out this stunning drone video from some of the most remote reaches of Chinese Tibet, compliments of contributor Edinz.  The video features footage from the following locations in the Ngari Prefecture, the westernmost of the province: Lake Manasarovar, Yamdrok Yumtso Lake, the Tarongcuo River, Lake Zabuye, Lake Trari Nam, Mt. Kailsh, Lake Tangra Yumco, Lake Jargö (Qiagui Co), Renqingxiubu Lake, Siling Lake, Zhada Earth Forest, the Zhongba Desert, and Lake Rakshastal (La'nga Co).

Top contributor Face Du Mond used ground camera and drone footage to make this stunning video from the eastern reaches of the Himalayan Mountain system in Western China.  The video was shot in the mountainous portions of the Yunnan Province and of the Sichuan Province which lies immediately to its north.  The western part of Yunnan sits at the eastern extent of the Great Himalayan Uplift, while western Sichuan is home to the mountains which form the Great Tibetan Plateau.  

China's Huangshan Mountains are a range of peaks of up to 1k meters (3.3k ft) in the Anhui province, which lies in the eastern part of the country.  The unusually shaped granite peaks of these mountains have caused this area to become one of China's major tourist destinations. Contributor Droneland flew a drone over these incredible mountains and created this stunning aerial video of the area, which lies in the Yangtze River heartland of what was once known as the Middle Kingdom.    

Check out this amazing drone video from a gorgeous area of China's Sichuan province.  Jiuzhaigou is a mountainous nature area in the northern part of the province, which lies in the southwestern part of China.  The area lies on the edge of the Min Mountains, which is a range that defines part of the great Tibetan Plateau.  As you will see in the video, Jiuzhaigou is characterized by beautiful lakes, waterfalls, and canyons.  Sicne 1992, the area has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site.  

The region Inner Mongolia is confusingly named, as it suggests that it's part of the Central Asian republic of Mongolia.  In fact, Inner Mongolia is a semi-autonomous province of China.  The country of modern Mongolia is actually "Outer Mongolia", in reference to the fact that it's further away from the core of China.  In this video, contributor Kinjo gives us an aerial view of Inner Mongolia, officially known as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.  With a population of about 25 million, it's about 8x as populous as the republic.  

Daocheng is an area of China's Sichuan province, in the southwestern part of the country.  It's in the Hengduan Mountains, a range which connects two of the main plateau areas of western China.  The area is part of western Sichuan, which is part of the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.  Given that this part of Sichuan borders Tibet to the west, the population here is mostly of  Tibetan ethnicity.   You can see this beautiful part of the country from a bird's eye perspective, compliments of contributor borje_xy.  

Taiyun is one of the larger cities in the western (non-coastal) part of China.  It's the capital of the Shangxi province, which lies to the west of Hebei.  Shangxi, and Taiyun in particular, have been in the forefront of the industrialization wave that has pushed west as the costs of manufacturing in China's coastal provinces continues to rise.  In this drone video, shot with a DJI Mavic Pro drone by contributor Okoo63, you'll get some bird's eye views of this important manufacturing center.  

Here's a great aerial view of a sacred mountain in the interior of China, compliments of jojodidi.  The subject is Mount Sanqing, which is considered sacred in the Taoist religion.  It lies in Jiangxi, an inland province which lies just to the west of Fujian and to the north of Guangzhou.  The mountain consists of three distinct peaks, the tallest of which reaches a height of 1.8k meters (about 6k ft.) above sea level.   

Hongcun is a town in the Anhui province of east central China.  Considered one of the cultural treasures of China, it has been designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Hongcun has become a favorite location for filming movies in China, notably Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, a 2000 film which received widespread international acclaim.  In this video, contributor Droneland gives us a bird's eye view of this iconic Chinese town, which is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.