Zhangzhou sits in the southern part of Fujian Province, immediately southwest of Xiamen, and remains one of the most rewarding yet overlooked stops on a southern China itinerary. A proper…
Jingzhou, in central Hubei Province on the banks of the Yangtze, is a city where more than two thousand years of history sit inside one of the best-preserved ancient city…
Changde, in northwest Hunan Province, is a green, river-crossed city that most foreign visitors pass without knowing it exists. That is a pity, because Changde holds two genuinely unusual attractions….
Anyang, in the far north of Henan Province on the border with Hebei, is one of the cradles of Chinese civilization. It was the last capital of the Shang dynasty,…
Liaocheng, in western Shandong Province, is often called the “Water City of the North” because its historic core wraps around Dongchang Lake, one of the largest inner-city lakes in China….
Weifang, a mid-sized city in central Shandong Province, is known around the world as the birthplace of the modern kite and the host of the annual Weifang International Kite Festival….
Somewhere between Fuzhou and Xiamen the high-speed line runs past a bay with a long low island offshore. That island is Meizhou, origin point of a sea-goddess tradition followed by…
If you have seen China’s national tourism emblem — a bronze horse at full gallop, one hoof resting on a flying swallow — you have already seen Wuwei. The figure…
Cross the Qinling tunnel south of Xi’an and Shaanxi changes completely. The loess plateau gives way to a green river basin of paddy fields, bamboo and tea, ringed by mountains…
The two oldest written characters for “China” are not in Beijing or Xi’an. They are cast inside a bronze wine vessel in a museum an hour west of Xi’an, in…