Taiping Lake: Anhui’s Emerald Reservoir Near Huangshan
Most foreigners who come to Anhui go straight up Yellow Mountain and leave, missing the broad green water that sits at its northern foot. That water is Taiping Lake —…
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Foguang Temple: Shanxi’s Tang Dynasty Wooden Hall
Serious travelers to Shanxi eventually hear the same piece of folklore: for most of the 20th century, experts believed not a single wooden hall from China’s Tang dynasty (618–907) had…
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Jinci Temple: Taiyuan’s Thousand-Year-Old Song Dynasty Shrine
Most visitors to Shanxi rush from Taiyuan straight to Pingyao or Datong and skip the provincial capital entirely. That’s a mistake, because about 25 kilometers southwest of the city center…
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Qiao Family Compound: Shanxi’s Magnificent Merchant Mansion
If you want to understand how Shanxi merchants — the “Jin shang” — built their fortunes and their homes during the Qing dynasty, there is no better single stop than…
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Peking Opera in China: Where to Watch This UNESCO Art Form
Few art forms announce “China” as instantly as the painted face, the high vibrato, and the crash of percussion that is Peking Opera. We’ve taken first-time travelers in Beijing to…
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Shanhaiguan: Where the Great Wall Meets the Sea
At the northeastern tip of Hebei, the Ming Great Wall finally runs out of mountain and marches straight into the Bohai Sea. We’ve taken travelers to Shanhaiguan who had already…
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Zhangshiyan Scenic Area: Hebei’s Red-Canyon Danxia Wonder
An hour and a half southwest of Shijiazhuang, the land around Zanhuang County splits open into walls of red rock hundreds of meters high. We’ve taken travelers there who expected…
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Baishi Mountain: Hebei’s Glass-Walkway Granite Peaks
Two and a half hours southwest of Beijing, Baishi Mountain (白石山) rises out of the plains of Laiyuan County as a wall of pale granite. We’ve taken travelers there who…
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Songshan Mountain: Sacred Peak and Shaolin Cradle in Henan
Standing in the center of Henan Province, Songshan Mountain has watched over Chinese civilization for more than two thousand years. We’ve taken travelers there who arrived expecting just another hill…
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Lushan West Sea: Jiangxi’s Archipelago Lake Getaway
We almost didn’t include Lushan West Sea (庐山西海) on our early Jiangxi routes, and that was a mistake. Once we took a group out on the water and they came…
