We head to Old Town Lijiang. Surrounded by lush green hills and sheer jade peaks, this incredibly enchanting and well preserved mountain town (and UNESCO world heritage site) is a must visit.

Despite Xi’an being a virtually unrecognizable shadow of its former glorious self, it is nonetheless a modern and very agreeable city, not to mention host to a very old and famous subterranean army.

Pingyao is a world in itself, frozen in time somewhere in the middle of the last two Dynasties. If we had to choose one place in China to spend almost a week of our trip, we certainly could have done a lot worse.

Beijing turned out to be a great place to lay low for a few days, and turns out our timing was perfect. 10 days after our departure the entire city was submerged by massive widespread flooding.

More from Shanghai, including Nanjing Road (by day and by night), People’s Park (revisited), French Concession, the Bund and Pudong by night, and Hailun street food.

Yu Yuan Garden, coupled with a meander around Shanghai’s Old City, made for a perfect morning excursion before the afternoon heat (and crowds) set in.

We flew into Shanghai from the U.S. and spent four nights in this strange and wonderful place. Shanghai, perhaps more than any other place in the country, epitomizes the mind-bogglingly rapid rise of modern China.

Both maddeningly beautiful, and apocalyptic and terrifying (how?), the Chinese landscape screams by our bullet train window at 150mph. After months of preparation, the big trip has finally begun. First stop, China!