Mati Temple Guide: Gansu’s Cliff Grotto Monastery
We send travelers to Mati Temple (马蹄寺) when they have done the Rainbow Mountains and want the other, older Zhangye — the one carved by hand into a cliff face…
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Baiyun Mountain Guide: Luoyang’s Alpine Forest Park
We started pointing travelers to Baiyun Mountain (白云山) as the cool, green counterweight to a Luoyang trip built around temples and pagodas. Baiyun Mountain sits deep in Song County, southwest…
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Tiantangzhai Guide: The Roof of the Dabie Mountains
We send hikers to Tiantangzhai (天堂寨) when they want a real ridge walk but have already done Huangshan and want something wilder and cheaper. Tiantangzhai sits on the Anhui–Hubei border,…
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Jixi Travel Guide: Anhui’s Huizhou Homeland
We started steering travelers to Jixi (绩溪) because it is the one place where you can still read the whole Huizhou merchant story in the buildings, not just in a…
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Yuexi Travel Guide: Anhui’s Tianxia Gorge
We first sent travelers to Yuexi (岳西县) as a quiet backup plan when Huangshan tickets sold out for the October holiday, and it has since become one of our favorite…
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Qingyuan Travel Guide: Zhejiang’s Mushroom Mountain County
Zhejiang is sold to the world as canals, tea hills, and the boutique lanes of Hangzhou. All true — and all at low altitude. Push southwest toward the Fujian border,…
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Yongji Travel Guide: Shanxi’s Stork Tower on the Yellow River
Shanxi’s south is a corridor of history so dense that a single county can hold a Tang-dynasty tower, a temple that inspired China’s most famous love story, and a set…
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Huguan Travel Guide: Shanxi’s Taihang Grand Canyon
Most people who talk about the Taihang Mountains have only seen them from the plain, a blue smear on the southern horizon. To actually stand inside them, you go to…
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Lingchuan Travel Guide: Shanxi’s Wangmangling Ridge
Shanxi is usually sold to travelers as temples, cave dwellings, and the wartime merchants’ mansions of Pingyao. All true, and all at lower altitude than most visitors expect. Push southeast…
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Shizhu Travel Guide: Chongqing’s Huangshui Highland
Most travelers who fly into Chongqing never leave the hot, noisy haze of the river-city proper. That is a mistake we have corrected for hundreds of readers. Two hours northeast…
