China Travel

Where is your Shangri-La?
Travel into China to find Shangri-La
Shangri-La - the county was formerly called Zhongdian County but was renamed in 2001 after the fictional land of Shangri-La in the 1933 James Hilton novel Lost Horizon, in an effort to promote tourism in the area. (see Wiki article further down) It is the capital of Diqing Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in south-western China's Yunnan Province. Shangri-La is on the border of Tibet surrounded by rugged high mountains and is perched on a plateau at an elevation of 3300 meters. We visited in No...

Shanghai, Beijing China Tours and China Travel Guide for Self Traveling China
Travel Around Shanghai,China all by Yourself!
China is an ancient country famous for its long-standing history. Originated in the eastern area of the Yellow River Region, China's civilization can be traced back to over 5,000 years and was considered one of four ancient civilizations of the world. It is not another country , it is a whole another world. Traveling around China all by yourself is much more fun and you need to collect more information before going there.

China - Learn, Explore and Travel
Visit 21st Century China
Standard Chinese or Mandarin (Putonghua, based on the Beijing dialect), Yue (Cantonese), Wu (Shanghaiese), Minbei (Fuzhou), Minnan (Hokkien-Taiwanese), Xiang, Gan, and Hakka dialects, as well as minority languages. In 1958, the First National People's Congress approved, at its Fifth Session, the adoption of the Pinyin (Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet) for spelling Chinese names and places in Roman letters, but the Pinyin system was not popularly used until the late 1970s. Pinyin is n...

Pingyao, Ming Dynasty, China Banking Capital
Pingyao, The Ming Dynasty Chinese Banking Capital
Pingyao in central Shanxi province, China is a fantastic place to visit. Just how I imagined China to be. It was the banking capital during the Ming Dynasty. There is so much to see and do in Pingyao, including several ancient temples of various varieties and many small houses and banks with courtyards now converted into museums covering the history of this important walled city. The city wall and gates are still intact and can be climbed for a good view over the city. The straight roads stil...