Attractions

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…

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…

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,…

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…

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…

The first time our driver rounded a bend on the Sichuan–Tibet highway and Rawu Lake opened up below us, the whole van went silent. A sheet of glacial water the…

There is a moment on the road from Shegar to the Everest region of Tibet, China, when the Himalayas suddenly line up like teeth, and at the end of that…

The first time our guide pulled the car off the dusty road south of Shigatse, Tibet, China, and pointed at a walled grey fortress on the plain, I thought we…

Most visitors to Zhangye, Gansu, China come for the Rainbow Mountains — the Linze side of the Zhangye Danxia Geopark, where the hills look like someone spilled paint. I did…

I will be honest: of the many monasteries I visited around Lhasa, Tibet, China, Ganden was the one that left me shortest of breath and longest in thought. Not just…