DiDi Maps in China: The Night Google Maps Broke in Chongqing
DiDi Maps in China: how the in-app navigation system inside the ride-hailing app became the only tool that worked when Google Maps broke in Chongqing at 11:15pm.
Category Destinations
Explore China’s most breathtaking destinations beyond the crowds. From Zhangjiajie’s Avatar Mountains to Guizhou’s hidden waterfalls—authentic travel guides to China’s wild side.
The First Mid-Autumn I Spent in China (And the Mooncake I Almost Didn’t Buy)
I timed my entire China trip without knowing September 25 was Mid-Autumn Festival. The bakery queue in Suzhou, the mooncake by the canal, and the teahouse I almost missed.
The Morning at Chengdu’s Panda Base With My Eight-Year-Old Niece
Seven days in China with my eight-year-old niece, day three at Chengdu's Panda Base. Early gates, baby pandas behind glass, and the 380-yuan photo I didn't buy.
I Tried to Visit the Forbidden City in August. I Lasted Two Hours.
I tried to do the Forbidden City on a Tuesday in August. I lasted two hours. Here's what August in Beijing actually looks like and how I rebuilt the rest of the trip around heat instead of attractions.
A Rainy Weekend in Hangzhou: West Lake at Dawn and the Noodles That Fixed Everything
The rain started before I did. I opened the curtains in my hotel room at 6:30am and West Lake was a grey sheet of water falling on water. The willows along the shore bent under it. A single umbrella moved…
Lijiang at 5am Before the Tour Groups Arrived
I set my alarm for 4:50am because a Chinese friend told me that Lijiang Old Town was worth seeing before the tourists arrived. “Before 6am,” she said, like it was obvious. I did not believe her. I set the alarm…
The DiDi Ride That Went to the Wrong Station and What I Learned About Getting Around China
I needed to get from my hotel near the Bell Tower to the train station in forty minutes. The subway would take twenty-five if I walked fast and caught the right line. A taxi would take fifteen if traffic cooperated.…
A Chinese Pharmacy, Sign Language, and the Cough That Would Not Quit
The cough started on the train from Chengdu to Kunming. A tickle at first, then a full rattle in my chest by the time I checked into my hotel. By the second morning in Kunming, I was coughing hard enough…
24 Hours in Xi’an: The Terracotta Warriors Were Impressive but the Noodles Changed Everything
I had 24 hours in Xi’an because the train from Chengdu got me in at 6:47pm and the one to Beijing left at 7:12pm the next evening. That was the plan, anyway. Twenty-four hours, the Terracotta Warriors, the city wall,…
The Park Mahjong Game I Wasn’t Supposed to Join
The Table Had Three Players and a Gap I wasn’t looking for a game. I was cutting through People’s Park in Chengdu — the same park where I’d spent an afternoon doing nothing a few days earlier, as described in…
My Friend’s Uncle Let Me Win at Mahjong and I Didn’t Realize Until Later
The Table Was Set Before Dinner Was Finished We were still eating when the uncle started clearing dishes from one end of the table. Not stacking them in the kitchen — pushing them to the side, making room, wiping the…
I Showed Up for Dragon Boat Festival With No Plan and the Zongzi Was the Best Part
6am and the River Was Already Loud I could hear the drums from the hotel room. Not a steady rhythm — more like someone testing a heartbeat, inconsistent, stopping, starting again. It was 6:10am and I hadn’t planned to be…
Zhangjiajie in the Rain: The Fog Ate My View and I’m Glad It Did
The Forecast Said 60% Chance of Rain I should have checked the 40%. That was the part without rain, and it lasted exactly until I got off the cable car at the top of Tianzi Mountain. Then the clouds came…
A Week in Beijing: My First Time and the Things I Got Wrong
My taxi from the airport overcharged me by maybe sixty yuan and I knew it at the time. The driver had refused to start the meter, said something I did not understand, made a circular hand gesture that I read…
China in July: The Day Chongqing Hit 41C and I Fled to Yunnan
A narrative log of two weeks traveling in China during peak summer: the heat dome in Chongqing, the 6:43am escape train, and the highland air of Kunming.
A Great Wall China Experience: Why I Chose Mutianyu Over Badaling
The bus dropped us at a parking lot that smelled like exhaust and steamed corn. A woman at a folding table was selling gloves for ten yuan. I bought a pair even though it was April — my hands were…
Jiuzhaigou Crowds in October: How to Avoid Them & Peak Season Survival Guide
6:45am and Already Queuing I got to the Jiuzhaigou entrance at 6:45am on an October Thursday. The gate opened at 7. There were already maybe 500 people ahead of me, standing in rows behind metal barriers, watching staff in orange…
Three Days in Guizhou: Waterfalls, Rice Wine and a Bus That Shouldn’t Have Made It
The Bus to Huangguoshu The bus left Guiyang at 7:10am, which in Guizhou terms meant 7:25. I’d booked a ticket online the night before — 55 yuan for a two-hour ride to Huangguoshu Waterfall — and the station was the…
China’s Forgotten Villages: 5 Remote Communities Worth the Journey
Most travelers to China never make it past the cities. They see Shanghai’s skyline, Beijing’s hutongs, and perhaps Xi’an’s terracotta warriors, then fly home convinced they’ve experienced the country. They haven’t. The real China — the one that has endured…
Best China Tours for Adventure: 6 Routes Tourists Miss
Every China tour operator sells the same route: Beijing, Xi’an, Shanghai. Maybe Guilin if you ask nicely. These are fine places, and for a first visit they make sense. But if you have already stood on the Great Wall, if…