Ziyang Travel Guide: Anyue Stone Carvings and the Sancha Lake
Ziyang sits an easy train ride from Chengdu, yet almost no foreign visitors step off there. I have taken two clients—one a Buddhist-art enthusiast, one a family wanting a calm…
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Fuzhou Jiangxi Travel Guide: Tang Xianzu Hometown and Local Cuisine
Fuzhou in Jiangxi province is not the Fujian city with the same name—a confusion I have had to clear up with clients more than once, usually at a ticket counter….
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Binzhou Travel Guide: Yellow River Delta Wetlands and Sun Tzu City
Binzhou rarely appears on foreign itineraries, yet I have routed two bird-watching clients and one history buff through it, and each left glad they came. This Binzhou travel guide is…
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Liaoyuan Travel Guide: Coal Town Lakes, Forests and the Yitong Volcanoes
Most foreign travelers have never heard of Liaoyuan, and I understand why—it sits in a corner of Jilin province that the guidebooks skip. But I have sent three different groups…
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Great Wall Boutique Hotels: Sleep Beside the Wall
Most visitors treat the Great Wall as a half-day detour from the capital. I did the same on my first trip in 2015, arriving at Badaling with a bus tour,…
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Guizhou Food Guide: Sour Soup Fish and Miao Mountain Flavor
Before I ate in Guizhou I thought Sichuan owned Chinese spice. Then a bowl of sour soup in Kaili rewired my taste buds toward tart, funky, and fermented. This Guizhou…
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Sichuan Cuisine Guide: Mapo Tofu, Yuxiang and the Art of Mala
People land in Chengdu expecting one thing — fire — and leave confused because the food is also sour, sweet, nutty, and weirdly fragrant. After eating my way across the…
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Zhalong, Heilongjiang: Red-Crowned Crane Wetland Reserve
I grew up thinking the red-crowned crane was a myth stitched from Japanese paintings until I stood in the reeds of Zhalong Heilongjiang and watched a flock lift off at…
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Mengdong River, Hunan: Gorges, Caves and Drifting Rapids
The first time I rode the Mengdong River Hunan stretch, I expected a lazy float and got a two-hour white-knuckle grin instead. This river in Yongshun County, in the Xiangxi…
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Wave Valley, Shaanxi: Red Sandstone Ribbons of Jingbian
I first heard about the place from a taxi driver in Yulin who kept saying “long zhou” and drawing wave shapes on a fogged-up window. Two winters later I finally…
