The Best Time to Visit China: A Month-by-Month Climate and Crowd Calendar
The first thing to unlearn: there is no “China climate” In October you can be sweating in Hong Kong while Harbin is already below freezing. So any honest calendar has…
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Baidicheng Guide: Chongqing’s White Emperor City Above the Yangtze
On my last trip up the Yangtze, I watched the river fold itself into the walls of Qutang Gorge and realized the small hilltop town we were approaching was not…
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Yellow Dragon Cave Guide: Zhangjiajie’s Illuminated Underground Wonder
I have toured many caves, but few prepared me for the moment a small boat rounded a corner inside Yellow Dragon Cave and revealed a floodlit cavern the size of…
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Taklimakan Desert Guide: Xinjiang’s Sea of Death Dunes
Crossing the Taklimakan by road, I watched the asphalt ribbon disappear into a wall of dunes on both horizons and understood why old Silk Road travelers called it the “Sea…
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Kumtag Desert Guide: Xinjiang’s Desert Meeting the Oasis
I have watched a lot of deserts, but nowhere else have I stood where the sand dunes literally press against the back fences of a green town. The Kumtag Desert…
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Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves Guide: Turpan’s Silk Road Murals
When I first stepped into the cool dimness of a Bezeklik cave, the desert heat of the Flaming Mountains vanished and I found myself face to face with a thousand-year-old…
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Gaochang Ruins Guide: Turpan’s Lost Silk Road Kingdom
Standing on the cracked earthen ramparts of Gaochang, I watched the wind sweep fine desert dust across a city that once held thirty thousand souls. The Gaochang Ruins near Turpan,…
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Jiaohe Ruins Guide: Turpan’s Desert Ghost City of the Silk Road
An hour’s flight from the coastal cities and a world away in feeling, the Jiaohe Ruins sit on a tongue of dried loess between two rivers outside Turpan, Xinjiang, China….
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Pengzhou Travel Guide: Sichuan’s Peony City and White Water River Valley
Most visitors to Sichuan never leave the Chengdu ring road, which is a shame, because an hour northwest of the city the plain gives way to the Longmen Mountains and…
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Jinyun Travel Guide: Zhejiang’s Xiandu Film-Set Karst Landscape
Most travelers have never heard of Jinyun (缙云), and that is exactly why we send people there. Tucked into the mountains of southwestern Zhejiang, this county is home to Xiandu…
