18 places to live differently

A UNESCO World Heritage highland town beneath Jade Dragon Snow Mountain.

A Bai heritage town framed by rice paddies — old courtyards, slow days

The last pure land on the blue planet — a Tibetan realm of sacred snow peaks

China's northwest frontier — where three borders meet and skiing began.

A remote trekking village where alpine lakes meet snow-capped peaks

Where the Yellow River enters Ningxia — an ancient pear orchard village.

Sacred alpine lake and Tuvan villages in Northern Xinjiang's wild frontier

China's last frontier town on the Pamir Plateau

Grassland temples under the sacred Mt. Yala

A Tibetan stone-village valley that explorer Joseph Rock called paradise on Earth.

Sichuan's "Corridor of Light and Shadow" — a photographer's paradise on the Tea Horse Road

Tibet's lush southeast — where snow peaks meet alpine valleys

Glaciers, snow peaks, and valleys of wild peach blossoms in Tibet's southern gateway.

China's last matriarchal society, cradled by a sapphire highland lake

Qinghai's "Little Switzerland" — alpine grasslands beneath Zhuo'er Mountain

A fairy-tale Tuvan village where mist curls through pointed wooden cabins

A Tibetan monastery town straddling two provinces — China's "Little Switzerland"

Where an oasis town meets the desert below the Flaming Mountains.