Jiuzhaigou Valley (or Jiuzhaigou National Park) is located in Sichuan, China. It is one of the World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This is the longest hiking experience I've ever had - it took me two days to finish every part of the park! However, I have to say, I'm already blessed by the modern road condition - "hardwood floor" type of the pathway that carved/built around the trees.

From October 13 to 24, food writer Fuchsia Dunlop will lead guests through cooking classes, insiders’ restaurant visits, and a farm stop on a culinary tour from Beijing to Shanghai. From $5,990. Photo by Keren Su/Corbis. This appeared in the October 2012 issue.

Shanghai is known for seasonal foods such as hairy crab in the fall and mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival. But if you’ve missed these dates, you can still sample a Shanghai delicacy: the pork "mooncake" (xianrou bing)—if you're willing to wait in a very long line. The pork mooncake it's not actually a traditional mooncake, but rather a savory flaky pastry which is available year round. At the Qing Dynasty—founded Zhen Lao Da Fang on downtown Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street (Nanjing Lu Buxing Jie), patrons wait in line, sometimes for hours (the record wait time is 8 hours), for a box of these freshly-baked pastries stuffed with minced pork. One imperative: Eat them piping hot while the crust is crispy and the interior juicy. 536 Nanjing Dong Lu, 86/(0) 21-6322-3928. Photo by Crystyl Mo.

Shanghai tailors are the best in the world, says fashion designer Christy Holzer, whose label, Dowry Designs, was inspired by the city. She suggests visiting the South Bund fabric market to order custom garments. DRESS: STALL 308 “A fun style to wear is the qipao [a centuries-old Chinese dress that got its form-fitting shape in the 1920s]. Traditional silk patterns make the garment look old, so request a solid-color silk.” SUIT: STALL 309 “If you want truly exceptional fabric, ask for 100 percent wool. Most of the wool fabrics they have are blends. Specify that they line your suit with 100 percent silk or cotton.” COTTON SHIRT: STALL 310 “Look at the buttons the tailors are planning to use, as they often choose cheap ones. If you don’t like the buttons, stop by a button stall at the market; it will be worth the extra investment.” Illustration by Michael Hoeweler. This appeared in the March/April 2013 issue.

Just before dawn, I’d set out to explore Chakpori—the “Iron Hill”—highest promontory in Lhasa. On it’s summit, Sangye Gyatsho, seventeenth century regent of Tibet, built the Mentsikhang, a medical college that turned out doctors until it was demolished in the uprising of 1959 and replaced with a steel radio transmitter tower to broadcast the news of Tibet’s “peaceful liberation” by the PLA. I had worked my way up on a path that skirts the 7th century Palha Luphuk—a retreat cave used by King Songtsen Gampo—and finally reached a ridge overlooking the Potala Palace—former seat of the Tibetan government. Blue, white, red, green, and yellow prayer flags bearing images of the “wind horse” had been strung from a steel pole and were flapping like a flock of excited birds over a four-foot high rock cairn built of flat mani stones. Bits of paper and juniper needles were burning in a concavity atop the altar: a lhasang—“offering to the gods”—incorporated from ancient Bön tradition. Whoever built it had split, probably to avoid the cops. From that lofty perch, I had watched the golden dawn kiss the Potala, framed decorously by flags singing unanswered prayers into the perpetual wind of the Tibetan plateau. Seven years later, those flags had been ripped down, and the once crystal blue sky was smudged gray with smoke from the city’s new cement factories.

In a snowstorm at Pethang Ringmo I was invited into a felt tent for yak butter tea with a drögpa, a nomadic herder. His blackened hands carved off a chunk of butter with a long knife, which he melted into a battered teapot over a dung fire. As he poured tea, I saw something fascinating in his smoky eyes, something wild and primal. Like he knew things—things I could never even imagine. As the storm subsided, and the last drop was drained from my cup, the herder leapt to his feet and pulled back the tent flap like a stage magician revealing the prestige of his trick. I rose slowly, light-headed, and emerged into a dreamscape, watched a curtain of silver mist begin to part, slowly unveiling an immense granite shrine—the ice-glazed buttress of Jomolonzo, towering 23,000 feet above sea level in a golden halo—so close it took what little breath I had left away. Glancing back, the drögie grinned as if to say, "Whoa! Check it out, dude.” I don't know if I will ever be able to explain what happened to me in that moment. I can't say if it should be written off to dehydration, oxygen deprivation, cerebral edema, or satori? I only remember feeling that there was no separation at all between the herder, the mountain, and myself. We were all made not only of the same carbon substance, but the same non-substance. We were form and emptiness all in the same instant. "Ha ko song," I told him I got it.

People flock to Macau to gamble. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's a shame when time at the roulette wheel takes away from exploring what is otherwise a brilliant little colonial-era treasure. Macau's old cobbled streets are brimming with charm and throwback delights, and the restaurants outside of the casinos are a revelation - Hong Kong gets all the press, while Macau may indeed be China's coastal food marvel. Take a stroll through any of these old twisting alleyways and see what I mean.

Hai Wan Ju is a cheap spot to taste Beijing folk cooking. They make very good noodles—handmade, of course. The zha jiang mian—noodles with fried bean sauce and vegetables—is a classic Beijing noodle dish. Here, they also add pork. —Fuchsia Dunlop 21 Zengguang Lu, Haidian District, 86/ (0) 10-8207-0488. Photo by Gary Soup/Flickr. This appeared in the May 2013 issue.

In November 1951, Eric Shipton, Michael Ward, and Sen Tensing Sherpa crossed Dinjung La, a high pass between the Kingdom of Nepal and Chinese-occupied Tibet. While surveying the vast Menlung glacial basin along the central spine of the Rolwaling Himal, the mountaineers were awed by two peaks dominating the headwaters of the Menlung Chu. A 23,440-foot massif formed the south rim of the basin, known to the Nepalese as Gauri Sankar and to Tibetans as Jowo Tseringma. To the north, a sheer granite monolith—invisible from Nepal and previously unexplored by Westerners—towered over the crackling glacier. Shipton christened this 23,963-foot double peak “Menlung-tse,” unaware that the locals had already named it Jowo Garu, “Goddess of the Saddle,” about a millennium or so prior to his visit. Up ahead, I hear Karma’s loud call, and move quickly to where he stands frozen in the evening mist. High above the Khampa’s broad silhouette, above a dark shroud of dispersing clouds, the sun’s last kiss ignites Jowo Garu’s saddle. In that intoxicating moment, I can forgive Eric Shipton’s hubris, his desire to claim the Goddess as his own. She radiates like fire and ice, but her beauty belongs to a world where mortal men are not welcome.

You can’t leave Beijing without having Peking duck at Da Dong. I eat the crisp skin first, dipped in sugar. Then I pile the skin, meat, leek, cucumber, and sweet, fermented sauce onto pancakes. I finish by drinking the broth from the carcass. —Fuchsia Dunlop Photo by Natalie Behring/Getty Images. This appeared in the May 2013 issue.

As a tourist in Beijing a must see for me on the itinerary was the Forbidden City. Construction began in 1406 and lasted for 15 years with more than a million workers. The palace complex is 178 acres. Wear really good walking shoes when visiting! I was surprised to see the water canals throughout, I was unaware of this feature.

11 April, 2012 - Jiaotong University - Xi'an, China. The Wutong trees (called "Parasol" or "Phoenix" trees in English) are just now getting their leaves. In a few more weeks the leaves will be as large as oak or maple leaves. Jiaotong University is also famous for its many beautiful flowering trees in mid-April and early May. Hungry for more Wutong photos? http://wp.me/p1CCHD-go

It’s hard to believe as I pour a cup of crisp white grains into boiling water that they began their journey to the stove in a place as serene as the terraced hills at Longsheng, outside Guilin, China. The Longji rice terraces cover the rolling hills in brilliant green, fading into a blue haze. All around is the sound of water running through a series of troughs from one terrace down to another, down to another. A local woman with a traditional style of hair, uncut since birth, will guide you through the gentle beauty of the terraced maze. For me, I’ve never looked at rice quite the same again.

Yunteng Binguan specializes in the cooking of the Yunnan province. The restaurant is hard to find, but their cheese is worth the hunt. It’s like a milk cake of fresh curd topped with fried Szechuan peppercorn. —Fuchsia Dunlop Photo by chrisjstanley/Flickr. Bldg. 7, Dong Hua Shi Bei Li, Dongcheng Qu, 86/(0) 10-6711- 3322. This appeared in the May 2013 issue.

Michael and I take the lead up a scree-choked stream draining from the Gangjam glacier. Two hours of climbing through talus brings us to ice-blue seracs rising like frozen waveforms from the mottled glacier. An hour further, in the cirque beneath the black wall of Kailash, we begin to sink up to our knees in sun-softened snow. Michael’s altimeter reads 17,500 feet, and above us, the mountain’s north face rises in a 4,000-foot vertical thrust of glazed rock, capped by a treacherous overhanging white cornice. Jaws gone slack, we lift our eyes in awe toward the Throne of Shiva. “How about it, bro? Break out the crampons?” “Jesus! I am not seeing a good route on that wall,” Michael replies, and we both laugh. Kailash remains one of the few legendary mountains on this planet left unclimbed—out of reverence. “And look at that freakin’ cornice!” Michael adds “Nevé ice for sure. Like frost on a windowpane. Won’t hold your points for shit.” There were rumors, nearly a decade ago, that the legendary Austrian mountaineer, Reinhold Messner had surreptitiously planned to bag Kailash, a task which he certainly had the skill and resources to accomplish. But when Messner saw the Precious Snow Mountain for himself, he realized what a desecration it would be to set crampons on its face or boots on its summit. He’s since become a vocal proponent of keeping Kailash off-limits to climbers in perpetuity.

Late that afternoon, we reach the confluence of the Rongshar and Menlung rivers, where a promontory of ancient glacial shelf rises several hundred feet above the two swollen rivers. On its summit, the blackened tin roof and broken adobe walls of Chuwar Gompa—“a place in the solitude”—rises like a ghostly apparition from a dense green field of stinging nettles. Because of its location near the border of Nepal, Chuwar was considered of strategic significance to the PLA. When the Chinese finally arrived to “liberate” the area in 1972, desecration began and some zealous Tibetan converts to Maoist ideology joined in the mayhem. Inside the gompa, dust motes dance on shafts of light piercing the tin roof, falling first on splintered timbers of the collapsed upper floor, then on the vacant central dais. A surreal fan of delicate fungus grows like an organic blue sconce on a rotted wooden beam; light and darkness take turns caressing the broken limbs of Chenrezig, Bodhisattva of Compassion. Even in senseless destruction, there is a savage aesthetic. Eight shattered effigies depicting various aspects of Buddha-nature sit in meditation around the temple’s periphery—some disemboweled, others beheaded or riddled with bullets—but all smiling irrepressibly as if to say: “Behold how ignorance can destroy a thousand years of art, culture, and human progress in a heartbeat. Behold the truth of impermanence.”

After an aimless walk through the calm Hutongs in the centre of Beijing we suddenly came to a crowded night market. It was only one row of food stalls, but this row was a few hundred metres long! You can even buy grilled seahorse or scorpion.. Enjoy :) ---