A road trip around Okinawa reveals why locals consider themselves apart from the rest of Japan, with its history and cuisine moulded by a rich Ryukyu past and South Pacific sensitivities.

For two cycling novices, attractive scenery and the kindness of strangers make up for the nerve-racking traffic, steep hills and bad weather on a multi-day trip around Taiwan by bicycle.

Yakushima is partly covered by a lush forest of centuries-old cedar trees, home to unique animals, part of which inspired Studio Ghibli’s film Princess Mononoke. We discover its joys on a three-day hike.

Andy Kuo Lee’s boat was punctured amid rough seas as he sailed across the Luzon Strait from the Philippines to Taiwan. He and his crewmate could only keep up efforts to bail the water out for so long.

A popular tourist destination in central Taiwan, Alishan has forests, mountains, and tea and coffee plantations. Cameron Dueck leaves the crowds behind to enjoy the stillness.

Celebrating its 400th birthday this year, Tainan in southern Taiwan is a bounty of design, culture and architecture, with buzzing night markets, delicious hotpot, historic temples and colonial touches.

A sailing trip allows Cameron Dueck to discover places he’s never taken the time to visit in years hiking and kayaking in Hong Kong. You don’t need a boat to rediscover the city you thought you knew, though, if you have the spirit of exploration.

Remote cabins scattered through the wilderness give a snug sense of survival against the freezing odds. Just don’t let the fire go out.

Winnipeg, the spiritual home of Winnie the Pooh, has much to offer, from world-class museums to a strong cultural identity that celebrates its First Nations heritage

Cameron Dueck goes on a kayak adventure over several days in Double Haven in the northeast New Territories, discovering historic villages amid an intricate maze of islands and bays

Xu Hongci is one of a tiny number of escapees from the prison camps of Maoist China; his autobiography has been translated into English from the Chinese original, published by Hong Kong bookseller Lee Bo in 2008

As two brothers find out, a lake-hopping adventure across the wild and remote Canadian Shield is no walk in the park

Cruising the Åland Islands between Sweden and Finland is an opportunity to get back to nature, and off the internet grid, with a few rums thrown in

A slow drive from Bangkok to Phuket with random turns down hairy side roads is a great way to see – and smell – life in rural southern Thailand, where you’re never far from the sea

The Red Guards used violence to prove their devotion to Mao, but their example inspired reformist intellectual movements that transformed the country, writes academic Guobin Yang

Author Rob Schmitz, a foreign correspondent, offers interesting in-depth profiles which chronicle personal change at a local level and against a backdrop of national ideological shifts

Whether playing in the shallows or surfing in the waves, camping out on remote beaches or exploring traditional villages, there are easily accessible kayaking spots for all types in Hong Kong

The best that can be said about this thin and rather condescending attempt to offer life lessons based on Chinese philosophy is that it might encourage some modicum of reflection – and might show readers that their problems are not novel

Time loses its meaning for Cameron Dueck while staying in a grass hut in Raja Ampat, in a remote and still-undeveloped corner of East Asia where he weaves between islands by longboat, admiring the karst topography above the waves and the dazzling corals and marine life below

Writer gives a solid account of the background to the events, but doesn’t add any new insights or uncover anything fresh about the events

John Aitchison has been all over the world filming exotic animals in the wild, and his book well describes the astounding beauty that makes the tedium and failure worth enduring

Dragons in Diamond Village describes how the authorities collude with land developers and thugs to dispossess some of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable

For dinosaur enthusiasts, the Erlian Basin, in Inner Mongolia, is still full of surprises, Cameron Dueck finds during a fossil-hunting expedition.

Far to the west in China is a place that is as different to the rest of China as one could imagine. Its people have fair hair and green eyes, the land is sandy and mountainous, and the languages spoken have no relation to those heard in the east.

Author interviews survivors of June 4, 1989, military action to shed new light on Chinese government suppression of memories of what happened - a work of particular interest in Hong Kong in wake of Occupy Central protests.

Xinran's latest book confirms all the worst stereotypes of young Chinese going overseas to study and start their careers: spoilt, incompetent and arrogant - and all because mummy and daddy coddled them.

Intimate Rivals, written by a member of the United States' Council on Foreign Relations, is not a particularly entertaining read - it contains few colourful anecdotes - but it is well written with coherent narrative.

Every paddle stroke brings into view another coral reef and another school of colourful fish flashing through the water beneath our hulls. The sky stretches achingly clear and blue overhead. Palawan is one of the most pristine and remote corners of the Philippines.

Calauit Island reserve, once the exclusive preserve of dictator and dignitaries, is home to giraffes and zebras tame enough to feed by hand.

A collection of hundreds of letters, diary entries and personal stories from four crucial days at the end of the second world war, Swansong 1945 captures the exhaustion and disillusionment with the conflict, and finally the relief when it ends.