We spent a few whirlwind days in Suibin, and the adventure began almost immediately with a visit to the local police station. Since I was staying with family instead of…

Heilongjiang, way up in northeastern China, isn’t exactly what you’d call a wealthy province. Its GDP sits in the lower third of the country—eight or nine times smaller than the…

Lijiang We arrived in Lijiang by train, joining a queue of passengers at the station exit where IDs — passports in my case — were scanned before we could leave.…

Flying into Dali, the sun shone brightly as mountains rose like giants from the earth. Upon landing, taxi drivers—some of whom had returned to Dali after years working in the…

Beijing was the first stop on our two-week trip to China, and I arrived feeling a mix of excitement and unease. Growing up in the United States, most of what…