Cities

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…

Turpan is a place of superlatives. Sitting in a deep desert basin in Xinjiang, China, it contains the country’s lowest point (Aydingkol Lake, 154 meters below sea level), records some…

Western Hunan — Xiangxi in Chinese — is where the province folds itself into green gorges, stilted wooden towns and mist that rarely lifts before nine in the morning. This…

Everyone has heard of the Mogao Caves at Dunhuang. Far fewer travelers know that Gansu province holds a second Buddhist cave complex of world importance — and that it might…