24 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

Karst peaks, riverside climbing, and China's original expat haven.

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

A riverside ancient town — quieter than Fenghuang, deeper than you'd expect

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

Misty lake shores and China's digital frontier in one walkable city

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

Where China's most famous landscape painting comes to life

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

A quiet Li-village hidden beneath Yinggeling's rainforest canopy

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.

Dragon-back terraces carved into the clouds for over 650 years