WildChina was thrilled to read “In Anhui, China, Centuries-Old Charm,” a travel article featured in The New York Times.  Since 2001, WildChina has been sending family trips and sponsoring museum travel to Anhui as it remains a destination where the unassuming ancient stone villages of China’s central plains make you feel like you are stepping back in time.  As Justin Bergman, the author of the article, confirms,  ”Two reasons these villages — about 20 of which are worth visiting, spread across the southern part of Anhui, an area roughly the size of Belgium — have retained their centuries-old charm are location and economics: they are set deep in the countryside of one of China’s poorer provinces, where residents have lacked the resources to tear down the old and start anew.”  We at WildChina could not agree more.

Our WildChina journey travels through southern Anhui, China, and is called China’s Living Heritage: Exploring the Ancient Villages of Yellow Mountain, brings guests to many of the sites and hotels that Bergman describes in Xidi and Bishan.  In Xidi, WildChina has been sending clients for years to The Pig’s Inn, a hotel that brings visitors back to a traditional Hui style architecture and design. In addition to the charming service and fantastic location, we must mention their hotel restaurant, which is a great place to try traditional Anhui food, including dishes like their greens with tofu and sweet potato noodles. After dinner, you can head up to the peaceful outdoor viewing area and look over the grey tiled roofs of the town.

Nearby the Pig’s Inn, the misty peaks of Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) have inspired Chinese artists for generations. Yellow Mountain, as well as the rest of the area’s majestic geography is a sharp contrast to the now humble ancient Anhui villages that were once so prosperous. On a WildChina journey, our travelers are given the option of three methods of ascending the mountain, two of which are significantly less touristy and off-the-beaten path.

Not too far away from Xidi, WildChina also takes our travelers to Wanan Village,  the famed as the birthplace of the fengshui compass, used to determine the auspicious placement of furniture, houses, and even entire villages.  Wanan’s most attractive feature is the over one-mile (approx. 2 km) traditional main street. Explore the main street and learn more about fengshui from our WildChina guide.

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To learn more about WildChina’s Anhui Journey, please click here to view the itinerary or contact us at info@wildchina.com.  For other winter travel destinations, we welcome you to read one of our more recent blogs, Ideas for a winter holiday in China.

Source: The New York Times, Photo by Life on Nanchang Lu

Looking for an unforgettable way to spend the winter holidays?  China may not be the most traditional answer, but it’s definitely an exciting one!  The colder months mark a time in the travel season where there are less tourists and scenery and festivals that are not available during other parts of the year.  Here are a few travel suggestions from our expert travel consultants:

China’s national parks. Be it Jiuzhaigou National Park in Sichuan province or the jagged peaks of Yellow Mountain at Huangshan National Park, these reserves are sure to be breathtaking.  To see snow-blanketed valleys and the misty, gargantuan mounds that inspired Chinese artists and poets for centuries, check out a sample itinerary here.

Guizhou. In this remote province of southwestern China, ethnic minorities will be busy preparing for festivals such as the Miao and Dong minority New Year.  Join in on the boisterous celebrations featuring traditional song, dance, richly embroidered costumes & old rituals like those described by Gloria (a WildChina travel consultant) in her recent trip to the area here. Also, check out this trip which highlights Guizhou travel.

Jinghong, Yunnan. Tropical and warm during the next few months, Jinghong is the capital city of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, a province in southwestern China.  When WildChina travel consultant Jenny visited, she said that she spent most of her time in the ethnic minority villages of the Dai and Aini people.  Here, the communities are tranquil, and the people are dressed in in traditional clothing, not because they are putting on a costume but because it is still routine to do so.

Hiking through the lush, tea terraces from village to village is one way to experience the local lives of the Dai and Aini people, but another way is to take advantage of their warm hospitality and choose to do a homestay.  In Jenny’s words, the architecture and accommodations are basic but the experience was ‘cozy and unforgettable’.  The home she stayed in was two stories, as most homes are in that area. The first floor served as a garage for farmers’ carts and equipment, and the upstairs served as the living quarters.  Over a seemingly outdated wooden stove, the host family cooked a delicious meal of Dai food, which is a unique Chinese cuisine that is marked by fresh, tropical ingredients and a Southeast Asian influence.

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For more suggestions about China travel during the winter months, please contact us at info@wildchina.com.

Photos by WildChina travelers & Anhui News

For many people, travel is a great excuse to be lazy and pampered, but for others of us, it’s a perfect opportunity to not only to get a little exercise but to do so among some of the world’s most stunning scenery and unique cultures.

We designed our Yosemite Sister Parks in China journey with the latter group in mind. This trip focuses on the natural splendor of Huangshan and Jiuzhaigou, which are sister parks of the renowned Yosemite National Park in the US.

This 13-day journey takes travelers deep into two of China’s biggest and most scenic national parks, with a focus on hiking in an around these parks with naturalist Pete Devine of Yosemite Conservancy.

Huangshan has been the subject of countless paintings and poems over the centuries and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Although Huangshan’s elevation is only 6,115 feet (1,864 meters), it is much higher than the surrounding areas and offers spectacular panoramic views.

No visit to Huangshan is complete without taking in the jawdropping beauty of the North Sea Sunrise, just a 10-minute walk from our lodging, in which the sun emerges from a sea of clouds to astounding effect. But Huangshan isn’t just about peaks, we’ll explore some of the park’s lesser-known gems, including the unforgettable trails of the Xihai Grand Canyon.

Jiuzhaigou is known for its amazing iridescent pools and unblemished mountain forests. The park, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, runs through the valleys of the Min mountain range. Jiuzhaigou’s gorgeous trails wind through old growth forest covered in lichen, moss, giant ferns and rhododendrons.

But that’s just beginning. Jiuzhaigou is brimming with lakes and waterfalls. Streams and springs from the surrounding karst mountains feed the lakes with runoff that is high in calcium carbonate. This imbues the lakes with otherworldly shades of turquoise and blue and transforms fallen trees resting on the lake bottoms into what look like coral reefs. Every twist and turn of the trails in Jiuzhaigou, and nearby Huanglong which we also visit, hold new and unexpected surprises.

To balance out the active components of this journey, there is also down time to sip tea on Hangzhou’s legendary West Lake, step back in time in the picturesque town of Hongcun, view China’s ‘national treasures’ at the giant panda base at Bifengxia or set your taste buds ablaze in Chengdu.

This once-in-a-lifetime trip begins on September 14, which means if you want to join, you’ll have to book your spot by June 14. To learn more about how to experience China’s national parks differently, contact us today.

Talking to a journalist recently. He asked me: I’m thinking of going to China in Sept. or Oct. to do a story on China’s holy mountains. Have you been to many of them? Any particular one worth profiling?

Here is my answer:
I am sure you’ve researched, two different definitions of China’s holy mountains:
Wuyue, Five sacred mountains:
1. Tai Shan, Taoist mountain of the east, Shandong
2. Heng Shan Bei, Taoist mountain of the north, Shanxi
3. Hua Shan, Taoist mountain of the west, Shaanxi
4. Heng Shan Nan, Taoist mountain of the south, Hunan
5. Song Shan, Taoist mountain of the center, Henan

Four Buddhist mountains:
1. Wutai Shan in Shanxi
2. Putuo Shan in Zhejiang
3. Ermei Shan in Sichuan
4. Jiuhua Shan in An’hui

Shame to say, I’ve only been to Er’mei, which is stunning. Most of these places are very crowded with tourist, but if you opt for hiking up the mountain the same way the monks did years ago, it’s still really beautiful. Jiuhua Shan is close to the Yellow Mountain. There are some lovely villages nearby that’s worth your visit – Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon was filmed there – all those bamboo forests.

If you include Tibet on the list, then I have been the holiest of all Mt. Kailash. I hiked around the mountain myself for 2 days. It’s a once in a lifetime experience.