Attractions

If China has a serious skiing reputation, it starts in Yabuli. Tucked into the Zhangguangcai range of Shangzhi city, about 193 km southeast of Harbin in Heilongjiang, the Yabuli ski…

Some 70 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang, where the Hexi Corridor finally runs dry and the edge of the Taklamakan begins, the Yangguan pass survives as a low earth-colored monument to…

Pingle Ancient Town sits in the Qionglai hills about 90 km southwest of Chengdu, and it has been here since the Qin dynasty — more than 2,000 years. What draws…

Shouxian is a county in the Huainan area of Anhui Province that guards one of the most complete ancient city walls still standing in China. The current walls were rebuilt…

I’ll admit I went to Zhenbeibu Film Studio expecting a faded tourist trap. Instead I spent four hours grinning like a kid, because this is the actual dirt-and-rammed-earth fortress where…

The first time I visited Ningxia Sand Lake, I’d been told it was “desert plus water” and assumed it would feel like a theme-park trick. It isn’t. About 56 km…

On my first trip out to the Gobi, I didn’t expect a single rectangle of packed-earth wall to stop me in my tracks. But when our driver pulled off the…

The first time I stood at the viewing platform in Bomê County, I had to check I was still in Tibet. Below me a wall of blue ice tumbled out…

The biggest cave I’ve ever walked into isn’t in Guilin or Yunnan — it’s in a corner of western Hubei most foreign travelers never reach. This Tenglong Cave guide is…

Most visitors to Chongqing have never heard of Diaoyucheng, and that’s exactly why I love sending clients there. This Diaoyucheng guide is for the traveler who’d rather stand on a…