Cities

There is nowhere else in China quite like Manzhouli. Pastel façades with onion domes line the main street, shop signs run in Chinese, Russian and Mongolian, and a 30-metre matryoshka…

Step off the train in Yanji and the first thing you notice is the signage: every shopfront, street sign and bus stop carries Korean script above the Chinese. This is…

Most travelers arrive in Tai’an for one reason: the mountain that rises straight out of the city’s northern edge. Mount Tai (Taishan) is the foremost of China’s Five Great Mountains,…

This Kangding travel guide covers the mountain town where the Sichuan basin ends and the high plateau begins. Kangding sits at about 2,560 metres in Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in…

This Ili travel guide covers the greenest corner of Xinjiang, China — a wide river valley in the far northwest where the Tianshan opens toward Central Asia and catches enough…

This Korla travel guide introduces the greenest city in southern Xinjiang, China — a riverside oasis at the foot of the Tianshan where the Peacock River runs through the middle…

This Hami travel guide covers the first real oasis you reach when you enter Xinjiang, China from the east. Hami — historically Kumul — sits where the Gobi ends and…

Urumqi is the capital of Xinjiang, China, and one of the most geographically extreme city bases on Earth — it sits closer to the Mediterranean than to Beijing, yet it…

Most travelers have heard of Ordos for the wrong reason: a “ghost city” headline about empty skyscrapers in the Kangbashi district. On the ground it is the opposite of deserted…

At 3,850 meters above sea level, Shigatse is the second-largest city in Tibet, China, and the traditional seat of the Panchen Lama lineage. Most travelers pass through on the overland…