Yulong Snow Mountain Lijiang: Cable Cars and Blue Moon Valley
Yulong Snow Mountain above Lijiang: the Glacier Park cable car and the altitude to respect, the turquoise Blue Moon Valley, the meadows, and the Yunnan loop it anchors.
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Yueyang Tower: The Lake View That Inspired the Poems
Yueyang Tower on Dongting Lake: famous for Fan Zhongyan’s 1046 essay, a Song-style wooden tower with a shifting lake view, reachable by rail from Changsha or Wuhan
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Xilingol Grassland: The Pasture Closest to Beijing
Xilingol grassland in Inner Mongolia: how to reach it from Beijing, where to sleep in a yurt, what to eat, and the best months for green steppe and quiet camps
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Wuzhizhou Island Sanya: Snorkeling and Reef Access
Wuzhizhou Island off Sanya: the clearest water and best diving on the Hainan mainland, the ferry and timing that matter, the activities worth paying for, and how it beats the resort beaches.
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Tiananmen Square: Access Rules, Security, and Timing
Tiananmen Square needs a free reservation, ID checks, and no tripods. Learn the access rules, the best timing, and what sits on each edge of the plaza.
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Thousand Island Lake: Qiandaohu Beyond the Postcard
Thousand Island Lake near Hangzhou is a 1950s reservoir with over 1,000 forested islands, boat circuits, and a famous freshwater fish head soup.
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Songzanlin Monastery Shangri-La: The Little Potala
What Songzanlin Monastery is and is not: its 1679 origins, the rebuild, how to read the layout, altitude and rail access from Lijiang, monastery etiquette, and the best time of day
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Songshan Dengfeng: The Central Peak and Its Martial Temple
Songshan in Dengfeng, Henan: the central sacred mountain, the Shaolin Temple and Pagoda Forest, the oldest brick pagoda, and the Yuan observatory, with how to get there
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Mount Siguniang: Hiking the Four Sisters
Mount Siguniang trek guide: the three valleys, altitude and acclimatisation, the Chengdu drive, season, costs, and how to pair it with the rest of Sichuan.
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Shenyang Imperial Palace: The Qing Dynasty’s First Seat
Shenyang Imperial Palace, the Mukden Palace: the Qing dynasty’s first seat, its octagonal hall, Manchu style, tickets, and how it compares with Beijing’s Forbidden City
