Travel Guide

The first time I hiked the Great Wall, I expected a postcard. What I got was a thigh-burning climb up uneven stone, a wind that snapped my map shut, and…

The first Chinese New Year I spent in China, I made every mistake in the book: I arrived the day before the holiday, found the cities eerily empty, the trains…

The first time I trekked in China, I underestimated everything: the distance, the vertical gain, and the kindness of strangers who pressed warm sweet potatoes into my hands at a…

When my friends married last year, they skipped Bali and came to China instead. Ten days later they sent me a photo from a private balcony in Sanya, two glasses…

There is a moment, somewhere in late March, when the whole of China seems to exhale after winter. I first felt it standing on the causeway at Hangzhou’s West Lake,…

If I could pick one season to send a first-time visitor to mainland China, it would be autumn. The rice terraces turn gold, the cities shake off summer’s humidity, and…

People picture China in summer and imagine heat — and yes, the eastern plains can broil. But after years of routing foreign friends through mainland China in July and August,…

The first time I stepped out of the Lhasa, Tibet, China airport, the altitude hit me like a soft wall — a faint breathlessness, a brighter sky than I had…

The first time I drifted down the Li River at dawn, the limestone peaks rose from the mist like teeth from a green gum, and our boat’s only sound was…

The first time I slept in a Chinese ancient town, I woke at 5am to the sound of a wooden boat pole tapping the canal and a grandmother sweeping stone…