Drone Videos of Western China

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 by top contributor Face du Monde, 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.

Top AirVuz contributor and pilot T-christ-T won the Drone Video of the Week contest with this fantastic video of Mt. Everest, the world's highest mountain.  The video, which mixes drone and ground camera footage, was filmed on the northern (Chinese Tibet) side of the mountain, which sits along the border with Nepal to the south.  With a peak of just over 29k ft. above sea level (around 8.8k m), Mt. Everest wasn't scaled by a documented climb until 1953, and not from its northern side until 1960.  

Xi'an is one of the oldest cities in China, and was one of the four so-called Ancient Capitals of China along with Beijing, Nanjing, and Luoyang.  It's the capital of the interior northern province of Shaanxi.  It' lies on the Guanzhong Plain, one of the cradles of ancient Chinese civilization.  With a meteropolitan population of over 12 million as of 2020, Xi'an is the third-largest Chinese city in a non-coastal province, after Chongqing and Chengdu.  Check out this fascinating city by drone in this excellent aerial video by Marc Piramide.

Top content creator Face Du Mond skillfully combined 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.  

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.   

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.  

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.  

New contributor Frankie_xia brings us this excellent drone video of the city of Chengdu, China.  Capital of the southwestern province of Sichuan, Chengdu is the second-largest city in an interior province after Chongqing.  Situated on the Jin River (a Yangtze tributary), Chendu was the last mainland Nationalist holdout during the Chinese Civil War which ended in 1949.  The video features footage of the city's riverfront and skyscrapers; at the :23 mark you'll see the New Century Global Center, the world's largest building by floor area.  

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.  

AirVuz contributor BonFPV earned a spot as a Drone Video of the Week Finalist for this outstandibg first person view (FPV) drone video of the Honghe Hani Rice Terraces in the interior of China.  The terraces are concentrated in Yuanyang County in Yunnan, a province which covers much of China's southern borders with Myanmar, Vietnam, and Laos.  The terraces, which are listed as UNESCO World Heritage site, have a history going back over 1,200 years.  They lie along the southern banks of the Hong River (aka the Red River).  

Check out this fantastic drone video of the city of Guiyang, China by AirVuz contributor Chitchai Sripirom.  Guiyang is the capital of the inland province of Guizhou.  With a metropolitan population of about five million, it's one of the half-dozen largest cities in southwestern China.  The city lies along the Nanming River, a branch of the Wu River, one of the largest tributaries of the Yangtze.  Located on the eastern side of the Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau, Guiyang has been inhabited for nearly three thousand years.

For a first upload to AirVuz, new contributor Yakoshan brings us this fantastic drone video from Western China.  The video features footage from spots along the ancient Silk Road, which connected East Asia with the Middle East and Europe from the Antiquity through the Middle Ages.  Featured locations include the Mati Temple near Zhangye in the Gansu Province, the alkaline Qinghai Lake (China's largest lake), the Gobi Desert, the Rainbow Mountains in Zhangye National Geopark, and a western section of the Great Wall.   

AirVuz contributor and pilot nico returns after a two-year hiatus to bring us this excellent video from the mountains of Western China.  The video, which combines drone and ground camera footage, was filmed around Mount Gongga (Minya Konka) in the province of Sichuan.  The mountain is the tallest in the Daxue Mountains, with a peak altitude of 7.5k meters above sea level or around 24.8k ft.   It's the world's third-highest mountain outside of the Himalayan Mountain complex.  This video was a DVOW finalist in December 2020.

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.

China's Huangshan Mountains are a range of peaks of up to 1k meters above sea level (around 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.    

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

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).

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.  

Hongcun is a town in the Anhui province of east central China.  Considered one of the cultural treasures of the country, the city 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 and drone pilot Droneland gives us a bird's eye view of this iconic Chinese town, which is now part of a UNESCO World Heritage site.  

Check out this drone video of a massive mountain in Western China, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Frankie_xia.  Mt. Siguniang is part of the Qionglai Mountains, a chain which runs in a generally north-south direction through the southwestern province of Sichuan.  The tallest of a massif called the "Four Sisters", Siguniang has a summit elevation of about 6.25k meters above sea level or around 20.5k ft.  The easternmost Asian peak above 6k meters/20k ft., it was not successfully ascended until 1981.  

Contributor and drone pilot Man Meets the World created this excellent drone video of a well-known rock formation in southwestern China.  It's called the Stone Forest (Shilin), and it's an area of tall limestone rocks in the Shilin Yi Autonomous County of the province of Yunnan.  The formations, caused by local patterns of wind and water erosion, resemble trees.  The area covers about 500 square km (a bit under 200 square mi.), and parts of it are incorporated into the South China Karst UNESCO World Heritage site.  

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 short drone video of an important lake in Western China, compliments of AirVuz contributor and pilot Frankie_xia.  It's called Lugu Lake, and it lies on the boundary between the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan.  It's located within the Hengduan Mountain system northwest of the Yunnan Plateau at a surface elevation of just under 2.7k meters above sea level or around 8.8k ft.   The lake covers a surface area of just under 49 square km (around 19 square mi.), and has a maximum depth of just under 94 meters (about 307 ft.).  

AirVuz contributor and pilot Frankie_xia brings us this beautiful drone video from a remote area of western China.  The video was filmed over the Garzê Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the westernmost of the four main non-urban territories of the southwestern state of Sichuan.  It has a long western border with the Tibet Autonomous Region, and its population of about 900k is over three-quarters Tibetan by ethnicity.  Covering an area of almost 150k square km (around 57k square mi.), it sits on the eastern side of the great Tibetan Plateau.  

AirVuz contributor and pilot Frankie_xiz brings us this excellent drone video of the city of Xi'an, one of China's most important cultural centers.  The capital of the Shaanxii, Xi'an was one of the so-called Four Capitals of Ancient China.   The video features footage of the following locations: the Drum Tower of Xi'an at the :25 mark, the Small Goose Wild Pagoda (:40), the Bell Tower (:48), the Tang Paradise theme park (1:00), the old City Wall (1:28), the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda (2:20), and more.  

Wuhan University is one of China's oldest and most prestigious institutions of higher learning.  Founded in 1893, it's located in the heart of the capital city of Hubei, an interior province which is part of the historical region known as Central China.  Consistently ranked amongst the country's top half-dozen schools, WHU has an academic staff of over 7k and an enrolled student body of just under 60k.  Seen here in this drone video by new contributor how.chou, its campus is often considered China's most beautiful.  

For a first upload to AirVuz, new contributor and first person view (FPV) pilot Sourr_FPV brings us this fantastic FPV video from the mountains of China's Zhangjiajie National Forest Park.  Located in the interior Chinese province of Hunan, these sandstone pillars have become a popular tourist attraction over the past decades.  In no small measure, their popularity as been driven by their appearance as filming location for the 2009 sci fi epic Avatar, the highest grossing movie of all time.  

In this excellent travel video by AirVuz contributor nico, you'll get an aerial tour of the inland Chinese province of Qinghai.  Qingai is one of the most sparsely populated Chinese provinces; it's the largest by land area (excluding the autonomous regions) and the third-smallest by population.  The video was filmed over the course of a SUV trip through the Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, which covers much of the northwestern as well as the southwestern corner of the province.  

Chongqing is China's third-largest city after Shanghai and Beijing.  It's located near the confluence of the Jialing and Yangtze Rivers, a bit under 1.7k km (just over 1k mi.) west-southwest of Shanghai.  In this excellent drone video by new AirVuz contributor philipp_danneberg, you'll get an aerial tour of the great city, which was the Chinese capital during World War II.  The video features some excellent footage of the city's famous pagodas and towering skyscrapers, the Great Hall of the People (at the 1:30 mark), and more.  

Check out this fantastic drone video from China's giant province of Qinghai.  The country's fourth-largest province by land area but third-smallest in population, Qinghai lies mostly on the great Tibetan Plateau, the world's largest and highest mountain plateau and the source of three of Asia's greatest waterways: the Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong Rivers.  The video includes footage of Qinghai Lake, an alkaline salt lake which is the largest lake in China, as well as the Himalayan Mountains, which surround the plateau.