I’ve had my fair share of travelling around China, and a recent week-long trip to Guizhou was my first time to the province. It was     1     true learning experience.

I tried looking up meaning of the name Guizhou in the dictionary     2     advance, basically to have a reasonable idea of what is waiting for me.     3     that was a hard task, so I asked from a Chinese colleague among a group of local and foreign     4     (reporter) on the trip. From what she said, the province was named after a famous mountain called “Gui” and “zhou”, which     5     (simple) means province in Chinese.

Our trip began in Zunyi city, which enjoys great popularity among Chinese for the famous ‘Zunyi Conference’. Yet not much     6     (know) about this famous conference in Africa and the western world even today, but obviously it was at this place     7     China’s first leader and Chairman was elected.

The following journey was mind blowing as I went on to explore Anshun, a place that never fails     8     (attract) every visitor with its largest waterfall in Asia. I     9     (dream) of this place for a long time and am more than thrilled to witness the breathtaking views, which leave first-time visitors like me     10     (impress).

It was a short flight from Shanghai to Xi’an. Xi’an is one of the four great ancient capitals of China with a history of over 3,100 years. Dating from the Ming Dynasty,     1    (it) ancient walls are the best preserved in the world. There are bicycles for people to hire. It is     2    (amaze) to ride along the walls to survey this fascinating city.

The Tang Dynasty Music and Dance show     3    (be) not to be missed, but my favorite is     4     art gallery, where we can enjoy some beautiful artwork and learn how to write Chinese characters.

Most visitors make their way     5     Xi’an to see the life-size terracotta warriors (兵马俑) and we were not different at all. The collection,     6     shows the armies of the first Emperor of China, remained hidden until 1974 when they     7     (discovery) by a farmer digging a well.     8     (walk) among the statues is forbidden unless you are a VIP — but there are plenty of souvenir     9    (shop) in which tourists can buy the replicas (复制品) of them.

All too soon it was time to leave. I     10     (true) enjoyed my stay in Xi’an. It is indeed a place of interest worth a second visit.

When garden designer Jane Gates moved to the Sussex countryside in 2015, she fell in love with a traditional black barn conversion, and set about creating a droughts-resistant garden around it.     1     she didn’t know was just how quickly her garden would become relevant to today’s changing climate.

Over the years, Gates     2     (experiment) with plants that suit this dry and hot place and made some interesting     3     (discover).     4    (Surprise), some plants, known for loving water, have proved adaptable to drought. Others have struggled. However, many plants specifically     5    (choose) for drought tolerance have enjoyed the heat.

Gates’ garden is a big gravel (砾石) one. On occasion she stands by the floor-to-ceiling windows     6    enjoys the scene. Gravel     7    (use) as a layer for the plants to grow through, joining the paths with the planting. The feeling is of a     8    (relax) space, with the light colour of the gravel comparing beautifully with the black of the barn. Gates recommends gravel as a cover on the top for     9     reason that it locks water in the soil below in summer, while keeping it away from plants in winter, which can damage them. This helps some plants do a bit better in adapting     10     climate extremes.

A city walk is     1     form of urban tourism originating in the UK. Unlike traditional sightseeing, which     2     (aim) to hit famous attractions and commercial center, usually by vehicles with tense schedules, city walk is about “roaming” (漫步) around a city on foot,     3     (absorb) the atmosphere and finding unusual things that even a resident of the city might not have noticed before. Such walks     4     (general) avoid famous scenic spots and shopping centers, and take you to places     5     you can have real interactions with the local people, eat at small but authentic restaurants, and gain a     6     (deep) understanding of the history and culture of the city. City walkers are a cast of people who are eager to engage with the city they are visiting or live     7     their own way.     8     they want to seek is pleasure more through connection than     9     (consume), which indicates a deep cultural curiosity. Be it the hutong in Beijing or the Chinese parasol tree district in Shanghai. City walks allow people to see the scenery apart from the scene and uncover     10     (hide) knowledge. City walk is a way to love yourself and benefit your mental health. Just like Oscar Wilde once said, “To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.”

Cusco is a popular destination for tourists, because of     1     (it) unique place in the history of South America. Cusco was the capital city of the Inca Empire which was the most     2    (power) in South America until the 1500s.There are two     3    (especial) interesting things to admire about the Inca civilisation.    4    first is the roads and paths they built     5    (connect) their important cities. These Inca roads     6    (make) up of two north-south highways and many small roads crossing the mountains east     7    west. The roads were for Inca soldiers and their     8    (official). Second, the Incas built wonderful cities full of     9    (amaze) architecture-but there were no markets in these cities. One of the interesting questions of history is     10    the Incas lived without shopping!

Hiking tours are a kind of adventure tourism. Generally speaking, these vacations focus almost entirely     1     hiking from one place to another. Hiking tours can be done as a group activity or alone.

There are many different     2    (way) of organizing hiking tours. Some people like to go out into the areas where there are very few people and travel over a long distance from one place to another. They usually stay in hotels overnight. They     3    (travel) to the next place in the next days.

Guides can make hiking trips     4    (safe) and more focused. Some hikers prefer to take hiking tours without guides because of costs or because they want test     5    ( they). However, employing a reliable guide during a hiking tour     6    (consider) as a better choice for less experienced hikers.

The activity can be very tiring, and those     7     are new to hiking may worry that they aren’t     8    (physical) able to finish the tours. Sometimes it can be helpful for people     9    (go) to the doctor and make sure it is safe for them to choose     10     difficult hike. Sometimes, a difficult hike can be deadly for someone having heart disease.

Gulangyu, which is also called “piano island” or “museum of global architectures”, is an island off the coast of Xiamen, southeast China’s Fujian Province. The little island    1    (think) of as a name card of Xiamen Cityand of Fujian Province as a whole.

Gulangyu saw rapid growth in    2    (it) culture and education in modern times, with schools, hospitals, newspaper offices and libraries    3    were built by people from both home and abroad.

The island became    4    famous tourist destination in   the   late 1970s. Unfortunately,   efforts to protect the local historical sites and cultural heritages ( 遗 产 ) fell behind when    5     (tourist) flooded to Gulangyu island. As a result, the    6    ( protect)   of Gulangyu became   necessary.

Bagua Mansion (八卦楼)，or the Eight Diagrams Mansion, was built in the early 20th century and is one of the attractions on the island. Later on, it was    7    ( bad) in need of repair but there was no enough money to do it.

In 1986, the Xiamen government decided    8    ( repair) the mansion. After that, Bagua Mansion became the only museum of pipe organs ( 管 风 琴 ) , a kind of    9     (tradition)instrument in China and the largest of that kind in the world. The mansion, along    10    52 other historical sites, forms a whole part of Gulangyu’s multicultural heritage, and this made it a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2017.

Located on cliffs above a river, Hongyadong is a stilted house complex (吊脚楼建筑群) in the traditional style in the city of Chongqing. Its bars, restaurants and golden lights     1    (be) popular draws since it was built in 2006. The main reason, it seemed, was Hongyadong’s sudden     2    (popular) on an app, Douyin,     3     is used for sharing photographs and 15-second videos. By the end of the year, the waiting time     4    (get) in was three hours. For a while, Hongyadong became the     5    (big) tourist attraction in China after the Forbidden City, says     6     well-known travel website.

Instead of having fun, some people now make their way to remote strawberry farms or bays to take photos to impress their friends on social media. Douyin has 230 million monthly active users and its fans     7    (common) use the app to watch hot videos posted by users they do not know under categories such as “food” and “scenic spots”.     8    (upload) a picture or video from a photogenic place to platforms, such as Douyin and Kuaishou, is known in China     9     “daka”. The word is also used to refer to the practice of registering your     10    (present) in a location that has already become hot, such as Hongyadong.