13 places to live differently

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

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

China's ice city — Russian-era boulevards, minus-30 winters, and a frontier spirit.

China's last frontier town on the Pamir Plateau

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

Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" filming location — an untouristed Pudong salt-trading town

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

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

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

Where China, Russia, and Mongolia converge at a one-of-a-kind border port city

China's legendary "first water town" — ancient bridges, deep lanes, zero crowds.

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

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