Wushan Travel Guide: Chongqing’s Lesser Three Gorges
Most travelers meet Wushan (巫山) through a porthole — it’s a marquee stop on the classic Yangtze cruise between Chongqing and Yichang. But Wushan, a county in Chongqing’s far northeast…
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Youyang Travel Guide: Chongqing’s Gongtan Ancient Town
When people say “Chongqing,” they usually mean the fog-wrapped megacity of bridges and hotpot. But Chongqing is a municipality the size of a small province, and its southeastern corner —…
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Xuan’en Travel Guide: Hubei’s Stilt-House Riverside Town
Most visitors to Hubei never leave the Yangtze corridor between Wuhan and the Three Gorges, which is exactly why Xuan’en (宣恩) stays so genuinely itself. Tucked into the hills of…
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Hongtong Travel Guide: Shanxi’s Great Locust Tree Homeland
There is a line etched into the memory of tens of millions of overseas Chinese: “Ask where you come from, and the answer is the Great Locust Tree at Hongtong.”…
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The Eight Great Regional Cuisines of China: A Traveler’s Introduction
A map that isn’t really one Chinese food in the West means a handful of dishes that bear little resemblance to what you’ll actually eat here. The real map is…
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Changing Travel Guide: Fujian’s Hakka Ancient City
Most travelers who plan a Fujian trip fixate on the tulou round houses or the coastal buzz of Xiamen, and they sail right past a walled river city that historians…
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China Great Wall Hiking Guide
The first time I hiked the Great Wall, I expected a postcard. What I got was a thigh-burning climb up uneven stone, a wind that snapped my map shut, and…
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Yanbian Korean Cuisine Guide: Jilin’s Border Flavors
I came to Yanbian for the border scenery and stayed for the food. Within an hour of landing in Yanji, I was sitting at a low table with a brass…
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Tanzhe Temple Guide: Beijing’s Oldest Mountain Monastery
There is an old saying in the capital that every Beijing local knows: “First there was Tanzhe, then there was Beijing.” The moment I climbed the first flight of stone…
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Yongle Palace Guide: Shanxi’s Yuan Dynasty Murals
The first time I walked into the Sanqing Hall of Yongle Palace, I stopped talking. Stretching across every wall was a wall of color so dense and alive that it…
