Attractions

I first rolled into Shangri-La (香格里拉) on an overnight bus from Lijiang, groggy and slightly breathless, and the first thing that hit me wasn’t the altitude — it was the…

Standing on the rim of Tiger Leaping Gorge, I watched the Jinsha River (the upper Yangtze) churn white through a slot barely 25 meters wide, the roar reaching me a…

I still remember the first time I stepped off the bus in Shilin and looked up. What I had expected to be a “rock garden” turned out to be a…

I’ve lost count of how many mornings I’ve woken up in Yangshuo to the sound of a rooster and the sight of mist peeling off a limestone peak. If the…

If you are planning a trip to Guilin, most guidebooks will tell you to take the Li River cruise and stop there. They are missing the best part. About 100…

I’ll be honest: before I went, I thought the Dujiangyan Panda Base was just the famous Chengdu panda park moved to the suburbs. It isn’t. About an hour west of…

The first time I walked into Chengdu Jinli at night, I honestly wasn’t expecting much. Another reconstructed “old street” for tourists, I assumed. Then the smell of chili oil and…

I’ll never forget the moment I tipped my head all the way back at the base of the cliff and realized the stone ear in front of me was taller…

The first time I saw the Mount Emei Golden Summit, I was half-frozen, half-asleep, and entirely unprepared for what the cloud sea did at 6:42 a.m. The mist peeled back…

I’ll be honest: on my first morning in Hangzhou I almost slept through it. The plan was West Lake at sunrise, then coffee. But a friend texted “go to Lingyin…