Author: karl

The first time I stood on the shore of Qinghai Lake, the wind off the water was so cold and clean it felt like it had never touched another person….

Standing at the edge of the Gobi Desert in northwest Gansu, China, the Mogao Caves near Dunhuang stopped me in my tracks the first time I walked into Cave 96…

I still remember the first time I stood on the fourth overlook at Zhangye Danxia and watched the late-afternoon sun slide across the hills. The sandstone in front of me…

I still remember the first time I stepped off the shuttle bus at the Five Flower Lake (Wuhua Hai) in Jiuzhaigou. The water was so clear and so unnaturally turquoise…

I first rolled into Shangri-La (香格里拉) on an overnight bus from Lijiang, groggy and slightly breathless, and the first thing that hit me wasn’t the altitude — it was the…

Standing on the rim of Tiger Leaping Gorge, I watched the Jinsha River (the upper Yangtze) churn white through a slot barely 25 meters wide, the roar reaching me a…

I still remember the first time I stepped off the bus in Shilin and looked up. What I had expected to be a “rock garden” turned out to be a…

I’ve lost count of how many mornings I’ve woken up in Yangshuo to the sound of a rooster and the sight of mist peeling off a limestone peak. If the…

If you are planning a trip to Guilin, most guidebooks will tell you to take the Li River cruise and stop there. They are missing the best part. About 100…

I’ll be honest: on my first morning in Hangzhou I almost slept through it. The plan was West Lake at sunrise, then coffee. But a friend texted “go to Lingyin…