10 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

China's medieval port of the world — flower crowns and living history

China's last frontier town on the Pamir Plateau

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

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

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

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

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