Attractions

The first time I stepped off the shuttle bus at the Benxi Water Cave scenic area, I honestly did not expect much. I had spent the previous week in Shenyang…

I have crawled through a lot of caves in China, but Furong Cave, Chongqing, China stopped me mid-step. A chamber the size of a cathedral opened up, lit in soft…

The moment the morning fog peeled back over Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China, I finally understood the “Avatar mountains” label. Hundreds of quartz-sandstone pillars — some 200 meters tall — rise…

In the remote Altay region of northern Xinjiang, China, Koktokay (Keketuohai) is a geopark of granite peaks, birch forests, and the cold headwaters of the Irtysh River — a landscape…

Carved into the steep hills of northern Guangxi, China over more than 600 years, the Longsheng Rice Terraces are among the most photographed landscapes in southern China — and for…

Straddling the border of Anhui, Hubei, and Henan, the Dabie Mountains are one of central China’s great green escapes — and the Jinzhai section in Anhui, China is its most…

Just outside the Tibetan town of Xiahe in Gannan, Gansu, China, the Sangke Grassland unfurls in wide green swaths where yaks graze and prayer flags snap in the wind. We…

Tucked into the barren, wind-scoured valley of the Sutlej River in far-western Tibet, China, Tholing Monastery is one of the most historically significant yet least-visited Buddhist sites in the Himalaya….

In the clay canyons of Zanda County, in the far west of Tibet, China, a ruined citadel clings to a vertical rock face and holds one of the plateau’s greatest…

Few bodies of water carry the weight that Lake Manasarovar does. Tucked into the far southwest of Tibet, China, at nearly 4,600 meters, this vast freshwater lake lies in the…