20 places to live differently

China's westernmost living ancient city — where the Silk Road still breathes.

Silk Road oasis where thousand-year-old cave art meets starlit desert skies

The last surviving marketplace of the Ancient Tea-Horse Road

The World's Highest City — where vast grasslands meet Khampa Tibetan culture

A Nasi valley village in the shadow of snow peaks

China's last frontier town on the Pamir Plateau

Gobi emerald lakes and starlit yardang wilderness in Qinghai

Ancient kingdom of Kucha, where Silk Road music meets old bazaar streets

China's capital of slow living — pandas, hot pot, and unhurried days.

The Sunlit Holy City on the Roof of the World

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

Home of the heavenly horses and vast seas of rapeseed bloom

China's northwesternmost village — where the frontier meets the taiga

A Buyi village built entirely of stone slabs, beside Huangguoshu Falls

Where the salt lake becomes a mirror to the sky and stars

Ancient Chang'an — where the Silk Road begins and thirteen dynasties ruled.

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

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

The 8D mountain city where cyberpunk meets China's wild southwest.

A Tibetan trail-head village beneath the sacred peaks of Meili Snow Mountain.