Sichuan Province: China's province that is worth visiting for food, culture, temples and national parks

Landlocked Sichuan Province sprawls across a great swatch of southwest China on the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Although a great chunk of it (including the Yangzte River Gorges) was carved off to form Chongqing municipality in 1997, the province still has a surfeit of pleasures.

The densely populated, fertile Sichuan Basin is emerald green with rice terraces and farmland, while the west features mountains rising to 4000 metres on the eastern edge of the Himalayas. It's only sparsely settled, mostly by ethnic minorities including Tibetans and Yi, but has spectacular scenery.

Songpan, 300 kilometres north of provincial capital Chengdu, is a pleasant gateway to the mountains. Old walls, punctuated by three massive gates, enclose an energetic town of stone and timber houses in a huddle of narrow lanes. From here the road heaves its way over a 4100-metre pass surrounded by snow peaks and topped by sky as flawlessly blue as an imperial silk banner.

Across the pass lies Huanglong (Yellow Dragon) Valley, where limestones deposits have dripped over the edge of thousands of pools like cake mix over a bowl. Miniature waterfalls and streams are tinted jade and turquoise by dissolved minerals, and in autumn, forests of juniper and mountain oak add to the colourful spectacle. A hiking tracks leads to Ming-era Dragon King Temple at the head of the valley.

Deeper into northern Sichuan's mountains, Jiuzhaigou National Park is a 40-kilometre-long forested valley full of stunning indigo and cobalt-blue lakes and waterfalls. Prayer flags flutter over Tibetan villages where corn is dried on racks. Further up the valley the landscape becomes wilder, dense with the bamboo stands that are the haunt of giant pandas. The most peaceful of the valley's nine villages is Rizegou, a base camp for serious mountain trips into the wilderness beyond.

Another epic mountain rises from the plains two hours south of Chengdu. Emei Mountain is a sacred Buddhist mountain of ancient monasteries and pavilions set amid forest and superb scenery. You can get a cable car to the summit but, if you have time and energy, you're better off hiking – dodging annoying monkeys as you go – and staying overnight in its mountainside monasteries.

Nearby market town Leshan is renowned for its 8th-century Big Buddha and adjacent grottoes full of ancient carvings. The 71-metre-high statue is carved out of a cliff at the edge of the Minjiang River. A long staircase descends the cliff beside the Buddha all the way to the eight-metre toes. Fishing boats and chugging passenger ferries ply the river, and the occasional fisherman still sets out his bamboo-frame nets in the water.