Xingyi Travel Guide: Guizhou’s Wanfenglin and Maling Gorge
Climb the ridge road south of Xingyi at eight in the morning and the valley below looks like a mistake in the landscape: several thousand near-identical green cones, each a…
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Kaili Travel Guide: Gateway to Miao and Dong Culture in Guizhou
Kaili itself will not seduce you. It is a workmanlike prefecture capital of concrete blocks and noodle shops spread across a bowl of green hills, and most travellers who arrive…
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Zigong Travel Guide: Dinosaurs and Lanterns in Sichuan
At Dashanpu, on the eastern edge of Zigong, a museum has been built directly on top of a fossil bed and the floor has simply been left open. You walk…
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Yibin Travel Guide: Sichuan’s Bamboo Sea and River Confluence
Stand on the embankment at Hejiang Gate at dusk and you can watch two rivers become one: the grey, silt-heavy Jinsha coming down off the Tibetan plateau, the clearer green…
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Basha Miao Village Guide: The Last Gunslinger Village in Guizhou
The last kilometre of road to Basha climbs out of the Duliu River valley through fir forest so dense the light turns green. Then the trees open and you are…
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China’s Major Railway Hubs: Navigating the Big Stations
A good China railway stations guide is worth more than a phrasebook, because the stations — not the trains — are where foreign travellers actually get into trouble. Chinese railway…
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China Train Types Guide: G, D, C, Z, T and K Explained
The first time you search a route on 12306 you get a wall of options — G1234, D311, K599, Z50 — and no explanation of why one takes five hours…
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Chinese Dumpling Guide: Jiaozi, Wonton and Beyond
Any useful Chinese dumpling guide has to start by admitting that “dumpling” is a translation problem. In English it’s one word. In China it covers at least a dozen distinct…
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Chengdu Food Guide: Sichuan’s Laid-Back Culinary Capital
Most visitors arrive with a one-item Chengdu food guide in their head: hotpot. That is a shame, because hotpot is the loudest dish in the city, not the best one….
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China Night Market Guide: What to Eat After Dark
This China night market guide is for travelers who discover, usually around 8pm on their second evening, that the country’s real food culture does not live in restaurants. It lives…
