8 places to live differently

China's most intact walled county town from the Ming-Qing era

Home of the world's oldest and tallest wooden pagoda

The quietest of the rich canal towns — silk wealth without the crowds

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

A Ming-era merchant-fortress village just beyond Pingyao's walls

Arcaded streets, midnight congee, and the homeland of the Teochew diaspora

A millennium-old crossroads where dialects from a hundred family names still echo

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