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Ankang sits in the southern sweep of Shaanxi, where the Han River cuts a wide green valley between the Qinling to the north and the Bashan range to the south….

Shangluo sits in the southeast of Shaanxi Province, where the Qinling Mountains drop out of the highlands and the land turns to folded green hills and clear river valleys. Most…

Xianning lies about an hour south of Wuhan by high-speed train, tucked into the hills where Hubei begins to rise toward the Jiangnan highlands. The city brands itself as a…

Heihe sits on the north bank of the Amur River, which locals call the Heilongjiang, and looks straight across the water at the Russian city of Blagoveshchensk. Few foreign travelers…

Guyuan sits in the southern stretch of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, where the dry Loess Plateau rises into the green shoulders of Liupan Mountain. This small city almost never appears…

Tongliao sits in the eastern reach of Inner Mongolia, where the Horqin Grassland rolls out toward the horizon and the rhythm of life still follows the seasons of herding. It…

Bazhong sits in the northeastern corner of Sichuan, where the Daba Mountains fold down toward the plains, a city that stays off the radar of most foreign visitors and keeps…

Suining lies in the central Sichuan basin, on the banks of the Fujiang River, a couple of hours southeast of Chengdu by high-speed train. It is not a headline destination,…

Benxi sits in the mountainous eastern corner of Liaoning province, a city that most foreign travelers have never heard of and that rewards the ones who make the detour. Two…

Taicang sits on the south bank of the Yangtze River estuary, a compact Jiangsu city that most foreign visitors pass by on their way between Shanghai and Suzhou. That is…