Lodging & Dining

The first time we sent clients to sleep in a yaodong, they expected a damp, windowless hole in a hill. They got a bright, arched room with a kang heated…

On our first tulou trip we arrived in the Hakka hills of Nanjing County after dark, and the only light came from the narrow doorway of a four-story earthen tower….

When we first took a small group of travelers up to Lhasa, the moment that stuck with everyone was not the golden roofs of the Potala Palace or the thin…

Ask anyone in Hainan what the island’s signature dish is and you will get the same answer before you finish the question: Wenchang chicken (文昌鸡). It is not a fancy…

Guiyang is the launchpad for some of China’s most spectacular minority-village and karst scenery, but the city itself is worth a night or two — and where you stay shapes…

Datong is having a quiet moment. For years travelers treated it as a whistle-stop between Beijing and Xi’an — a quick look at the Yungang Grottoes and on you go….

Chengde is one of those Chinese destinations that rewards travelers who actually sleep in town rather than day-tripping from Beijing. The city exists because of the Qing emperors’ summer retreat,…

Shenyang surprised me. I went expecting a grey industrial stopover and found a city with a genuine imperial heart — the former capital of the Qing dynasty, full of tiled…

There is a particular kind of tiredness that only arrives after a long ridge hike, and the best cure I have found is a hot shower and a window looking…

The first time I slept in a yurt, I woke up at 4 a.m. to the sound of wind moving across open grass and a sky so dense with stars…