Visit Khujand

The world's largest car-free old city.

The Qissa Khwani storytellers bazaar, Gandhara art in the museum and the road to the Khyber Pass.

Visit Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. Explore the National Museum of Tajikistan (home to a 13-meter-long Buddha statue and artifacts from the Silk Road), stroll through Rudaki Park (named after a Persian poet, with fountains and a statue of Ismail Samani), and see the Dushanbe Flagpole (one of the tallest in the world at 165 meters). Try local dishes like plov (rice pilaf with meat and carrots) and shashlik (grilled meat skewers) at the Green Bazaar.

Hokkaido's southern port: the night view from Mount Hakodate, red-brick warehouses and the morning fish market.

The fiery city of the Meuse: Montagne de Bueren's 374 steps, the Sunday Batte market and Liege waffles.

A baroque city built of black lava at the foot of Etna, with the loudest fish market in Sicily.

The Seomun night market, a medicine-herb street and the Haeinsa temple with its 80,000 printing blocks nearby.

The royal family's seaside resort since the 1920s, with a teak palace, night markets and a long beach.