Cities

Stand on the cracked earth of the Jiaohe ruins at dawn and you feel it immediately — Turpan, Xinjiang, China is a place where the desert tried to win and…

Most travelers hit Fenghuang on the way to somewhere louder. That’s a mistake. Tucked into the hills of western Hunan, this riverside town of wooden stilt houses (diaojiaolou) is one…

There’s a moment, somewhere around minus twenty, when your breath hangs in the air like smoke and the whole world goes blue and white. That’s the Harbin Ice Festival. Every…

When the rest of China is scraping frost off the windows, Sanya is sitting at 26°C with a sea breeze and a fresh coconut in hand. This is China’s only…

If you want a Chinese city that slows your pulse instead of raising it, this Xiamen travel guide is for you. Xiamen sits on the southeast coast facing the Taiwan…

Most China itineraries sprint between Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai and call it a trip. This Qingdao travel guide is for the traveler who wants to slow down on a real…

Most people land in Beijing or Shanghai and never make it to the city that once ruled them both. This Nanjing travel guide is for the traveler who wants the…

If your mental image of China is all skyscrapers and bullet trains, this Suzhou travel guide is the correction you didn’t know you needed. An hour west of Shanghai by…

The night I finally understood Lijiang Old Town, I was sitting on a stone slab beside a trickling canal, watching steam rise off a bowl of yak-meat noodles, with the…

Most travelers rush through Yunnan chasing Lijiang’s crowds or Shangri-La’s altitude. They miss the one place that actually lets you exhale. Dali Yunnan sits in a bowl between the 4,000-meter…