Taining Danxia Guide: Golden Lake Boats, Slot Canyons and Cliff Trails
Fujian is known for tea mountains and port cities, so the red rock country in its northwest corner tends to go unnoticed. Taining sits in a basin of Cretaceous sandstone…
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Jingpo Lake Guide: Diaoshuilou Waterfall, Volcano Craters and Boat Trips
A river in northeast China ran into a wall of cooled lava about ten thousand years ago, backed up behind it, and made a lake forty-five kilometres long. That is…
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Luofu Mountain Guide: Taoist Holy Peak and Hot Springs near Huizhou
Rising behind the city of Huizhou in Guangdong, Luofu Mountain is one of the sacred peaks of Chinese Taoism and one of the easier day trips from the Pearl River…
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Samye Monastery Guide: Tibet’s First Monastery in the Yarlung Valley
Set on a broad plain where the Yarlung Tsangpo curves through Shannan, Tibet, China, Samye Monastery is traditionally held to be the first Buddhist monastery built on Tibetan soil. Founded…
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Kizil Grottoes Guide: Millennia-Old Buddhist Murals in Aksu, Xinjiang
Carved into the cliffs above the Muzat River about 70 kilometers northwest of Baicheng county, the Kizil Grottoes are the oldest and largest Buddhist cave complex in Xinjiang, China. Excavated…
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Chaohu Lake Guide: Lakeside Walks and Island Temples near Hefei
Anhui is better known for Huangshan and the ancient villages of the south, so most foreign travelers never hear of its largest lake. Chaohu (巢湖), a broad freshwater lake an…
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Xiangtangshan Grottoes Guide: Northern Qi Buddhist Carvings near Handan
The great cave-temples of China — Yungang, Longmen, Dunhuang — draw the crowds and the guidebook praise. But there is a smaller, quieter cluster in southern Hebei that art historians…
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Guan’e Valley Guide: Waterfalls and Gorges of Longnan, Gansu
When people talk about Gansu, they usually mean the Hexi Corridor — the desert road to Dunhuang. But the far south of the province, in Longnan, holds a different landscape…
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Jinsha Site Museum Guide: Ancient Shu Gold and the Sun Bird of Chengdu
Most visitors to Chengdu know the pandas and the spicy food. Far fewer know that, less than twenty years ago, construction workers digging foundations here uncovered a Bronze Age city…
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Tiantai Mountain Guide: Birthplace of Tiantai Buddhism in Zhejiang
Most foreign visitors to Zhejiang head straight for the West Lake in Hangzhou and never learn that the province holds one of the most important Buddhist sites in East Asia….
