Best Hotels in Guilin: Li River Views, Karst Retreats and Family Stays
Guilin sells itself on a single image: pale karst towers rising from a misted river, and the smartest thing you can do is book a room that puts that view…
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Best Hotels in Hangzhou: West Lake Views, Heritage Inns and Budget Stays
Hangzhou is one of those Chinese cities where where you sleep shapes the whole trip. The city’s star attraction, West Lake, is free to walk but priceless to wake up…
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Luofu Mountain Guide: Taoist Holy Peak and Hot Springs near Huizhou
Rising behind the city of Huizhou in Guangdong, Luofu Mountain is one of the sacred peaks of Chinese Taoism and one of the easier day trips from the Pearl River…
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Samye Monastery Guide: Tibet’s First Monastery in the Yarlung Valley
Set on a broad plain where the Yarlung Tsangpo curves through Shannan, Tibet, China, Samye Monastery is traditionally held to be the first Buddhist monastery built on Tibetan soil. Founded…
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Kizil Grottoes Guide: Millennia-Old Buddhist Murals in Aksu, Xinjiang
Carved into the cliffs above the Muzat River about 70 kilometers northwest of Baicheng county, the Kizil Grottoes are the oldest and largest Buddhist cave complex in Xinjiang, China. Excavated…
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Chaohu Lake Guide: Lakeside Walks and Island Temples near Hefei
Anhui is better known for Huangshan and the ancient villages of the south, so most foreign travelers never hear of its largest lake. Chaohu (巢湖), a broad freshwater lake an…
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Xiangtangshan Grottoes Guide: Northern Qi Buddhist Carvings near Handan
The great cave-temples of China — Yungang, Longmen, Dunhuang — draw the crowds and the guidebook praise. But there is a smaller, quieter cluster in southern Hebei that art historians…
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Guan’e Valley Guide: Waterfalls and Gorges of Longnan, Gansu
When people talk about Gansu, they usually mean the Hexi Corridor — the desert road to Dunhuang. But the far south of the province, in Longnan, holds a different landscape…
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Jinsha Site Museum Guide: Ancient Shu Gold and the Sun Bird of Chengdu
Most visitors to Chengdu know the pandas and the spicy food. Far fewer know that, less than twenty years ago, construction workers digging foundations here uncovered a Bronze Age city…
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Tiantai Mountain Guide: Birthplace of Tiantai Buddhism in Zhejiang
Most foreign visitors to Zhejiang head straight for the West Lake in Hangzhou and never learn that the province holds one of the most important Buddhist sites in East Asia….
