Tianmu Mountain, in the northwest of Zhejiang province, is one of eastern China’s last great tracts of primeval forest. Its giant ginkgo and cedar trees, some more than a thousand…
Mianshan is a mountain retreat in central Shanxi, about 40 km southwest of the ancient city of Pingyao. It is best known for temples and walkways built directly into its…
Hengshan is the northernmost of China’s Five Great Sacred Mountains, rising along the border of Shanxi province near the city of Datong. Unlike its dramatic sibling Huashan, Hengshan is a…
Taibai Mountain rises in the heart of the Qinling range, the great east–west spine that divides northern and southern China. At 3,767 meters, it is the highest peak in Shaanxi…
Zhuzhou sits in eastern Hunan, about 50 km south of Changsha, where the Xiang River meets the Lishui. Most foreign travelers have never heard of it, which is exactly why…
When travelers think of Guangxi, the image is usually Guilin’s misty peaks or Yangshuo’s rivers. Baise, far to the west of the region, offers a wilder, less-polished version of that…
Chuzhou is the kind of Chinese city that lives in a famous essay rather than on a postcard. Nearly a thousand years ago the statesman and writer Ouyang Xiu served…
Bozhou is not on most foreign itineraries, and that is precisely the point. Deep in northern Anhui, far from the alpine drama of Huangshan, this is a city built on…
On a map, Ma’anshan looks like a satellite of Nanjing — and geographically it nearly is, sitting just across the provincial border from Jiangsu on the south bank of the…
Most foreign travelers blow through Shandong chasing the headline names — Confucius in Qufu, the springs of Jinan, the beer and beaches of Qingdao. Dezhou rarely makes that first list,…