Cities

The first time we took travelers to Gubei water town, they assumed it was a centuries-old village — and that’s the compliment the designers earned. Built from 2010 and opened…

If you want to stand on the Tibetan plateau without the permits and paperwork of Lhasa, Golog, Qinghai, China is the answer we give seasoned travelers. Golog (Guoluo Tibetan Autonomous…

When travelers ask us about Xibaipo red tourism, we tell them to set expectations correctly: this is not a theme park. Xibaipo is a small lakeside village in Pingshan County,…

Most travelers who plan a Nuanquan ancient town trip come for one reason and stay for a dozen others: the nightly “iron flower” show, where local blacksmiths fling ladles of…

Most foreign visitors to Jiangxi, China head straight for Jingdezhen’s kilns or the misted peaks of Lushan, and miss a third story entirely. On a research trip last spring we…

Of all the water towns inside Shanghai municipality, Xinchang is the one we hesitate to tell everyone about — because part of its appeal is that it is still under…

Shanghai’s water towns are usually shorthand for Zhujiajiao, and that is fair — but on a trip last autumn we took a client an hour southwest to Fengjing, and it…

If you have already walked Zhouzhuang and Tongli and want a water town that still belongs to its residents, Qiandeng is the one we point to. This Qiandeng ancient town…

Most visitors to Suzhou never make it past the Humble Administrator’s Garden and Pingjiang Road, and I understand why — those are the headliners. But on our last trip with…

Most foreign visitors who come to this corner of Anhui stop at Hongcun or Xidi and never learn that the county seat that fed those villages — Shexian (歙县) —…