| Province or Municipality |
Cities, towns, sights |
| Anhui | Hefei, Huangshan overnight and nearby towns and villages including Tunxi, Hongcun and Xidi |
| Beijing | In addition to the usual Great Wall tour sites (Badaling, Mutianyu and Juyongguan), have been to the Wall also at Jinshanling and Simatai; extensive walks around hutong areas of Back Lakes and Liulichang/Dazhalar areas; all throughout the Forbidden City and Tian’anmen Square; Temple of Heaven; Summer Palace and Yuanmingyuan; Five Pagoda Temple; Big Bell Temple; Beijing University plus its Sackler Museum; Western Hills including the Botanical Gardens, Wofo Si and Biyun Si; plus destinations farther outside the city including Badachu; Longqing Gorge, Kangxi Grasslands, Shidu and much more while I lived there |
| Chongqing | Besides standard tour locations such as the Stilwell Museum and Three Gorges Museum, I’ve visited outlying farms, Red Crag Village, Luohan Si and its 500 Arhats Hall; Dazu several times |
| Guangdong | Guangzhou and Chen Family Mansion, Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall; shopping trip to Shenzhen by train from Hong Kong |
| Guangxi | In addition to Guilin and the Li River cruise, Reed Flute Cave, I’ve spent a lot of time in Yangshuo including the evening extravaganza performance LiuSanJie by famed director Zhang Yimou, two days of classes at Yangshuo Cooking School in Chaolong Village, walking around another nearby river village, and arriving by road from my 2008 minority village tour from Guizhou (below) making stops at Sanjiang and Longsheng rice terraces and Red Yao Village and its hairdressing demonstration |
| Guizhou | Two trips including Guiyang and its Hongfu Si and city tour; Anshun and nearby Longgong Caves and Huangguoshu Waterfall; Kaili and textile museum, other private galleries;, many small minority villages including Matang, Xiangshigou, Longhorn Miao Village, Caiguan Old Han village and opera, Xijiang and Miao New Year dance, Jidao Miao Village, Leishan and buffalo-fighting “state fair, ”Taoyao Miao Village for pottery-making, Paika Village to see making of Lusheng bamboo pipes, Hundred Birds Miao family to see silk felting technique, Chejiang Dong Village for weaving and its huge Banyan trees and Dong tower, Rongjiang, Zhaoxing Village, JinTan Dong village, Basha, Liujia, Tangan Village with Norwegian ecological museum, Liujia town with Dong dancing, Chenyang and its largest wind and rain bridge in China, several others where we saw basket painting and batik artistry |
| Hebei | Chengde including the Qing Dynasty Mountain Resort and many of the surrounding temples; Eastern Qing Tombs; Beidaihe beaches plus Lin Piao’s villa, Shanhaiguan; Tangshan for a week shooting a China Through Foreigner’s Eyes CCTV segment |
| Heilongjiang | Harbin including Unit 731 Museum where the Japanese did horrifying experiments during WWII, Songhua River (Unfortunately this trip was not during the ice festival.) |
| Hong Kong | Many places besides the standard half-day tour to Victoria Peak, Repulse Bay, Aberdeen and Stanley Market, including the Song Dynasty Village (which may now be closed), bird and flower market, jade market, HK History Museum, escalator system, Man Mo Temple, Hollywood Road; Lantau Island – Po Lin Monastery; hiked Lamma Island from one ferry port to the other on the opposite side of the island; browsed Cheng Chau Island twice |
| Hubei | Wuhan’s Yellow Crane Pagoda, Hubei Provincial Museum and extraordinary bells; Yueyang; Yichang and Three Gorges Dam and museum; Baidicheng; Wushan and Three Lesser Gorges; Baodong’s Shennong Stream—all of Yangtze Cruise both before and after Dam construction |
| Hunan | Changsha including Shaoshan, Mao’s birthplace |
| Jiangsu | Suzhou, usual sites including Master of Nets Garden, Lingering Garden, Humble Administrator’s Garden, plus Tiger Hill, Museum of Opera and Theatre, Confucius Temple, wandering around old town many times and more; Wuxi (boat ride on Taihu etc.), plus Grand Canal cruise to Suzhou; water towns including Zhouzhuang and Tongli; Yixing and its clay teapots; Nanjing (twice) including early Ming Tombs, Sun Yat Sen’s tomb, Yangtze River Bridge; Changzhou for a week, one of the China Through Foreigner’s Eyes CCTV segments; Shaoxing including tasting its famous wines, local opera, Lu Xun’s Residence |
| Jilin | Changchun and Pu Yi’s northern palace including an interview with his “last concubine,” Li YuQin, who gave me a piece of her calligraphy, Number One Automobile Factory tour as they were just starting new production of the Hong Qi (Red Flag) model |
| Liaoning | Anshan for a week as part of the China Through Foreigner’s Eyes CCTV series; traversed the province by train to Dandong and then to North Korea in 1995 |
| Shaanxi | In addition to Xian and the usual tour itineraries including the terracotta warriors, museums, mosque, etc., on an early trip I visited many other outlying tombs besides Qinshihuangdi and Han Jingdi plus earthen cave homes in different locations |
| Shandong | Qufu including Confucius Mansion, Kong Forest and Confucius’ tomb; Mt. Tai (staying overnight on top twice) including sunrise where Mao proclaimed, “The East is Red”; Jinan very briefly |
| Shanghai | In addition to usual tour destinations such as Art Museum, acrobat show, Old City and Yu Yuan garden, have visited the Jewish quarter and synagogue, pedestrian tunnel under Huangpu River, top of Oriental Pearl Tower, Lu Xun tomb, various knockoff markets, Longhua Si, Jing’An Si, cruise on Huangpu River to the mouth of Yangtze River, Song Qingling’s Former Residence, Xintiandi, much more |
| Shanxi | Luoyang including Longmen Caves, Baima (White Horse) Temple and Shaolin Si with adjoining Forest of Dagobas ; Pingyao and all the town’s attractions including Rishengchang (first bank), walked the City Wall, climbed Bell Tower, various other preserved buildings and Taoist Temple, plus Qiao Mansion where Raise the Red Lantern was filmed |
| Sichuan | Chengdu – Panda Research Center several times, Sichuan opera, DuFu’s Thatched Cottage; plus many visits along the Yangtze on stops at Shibaozhai, and Wanxian |
| Tianjin | Visited an orphanage here for a news story on American adoptions of Chinese babies |
| Tibet | Two visits including Lhasa: Potala, Jokhang and Barkhor, Drepung and Sera Monasteries, Norbulingka; drove to Shigatse and Tashilumpo Monastery, old market |
| Yangtze River | Probably two dozen+ cruises between 1988 and 2011 which gave me an opportunity to see all aspects of the Three Gorges Dam preparation and construction |
| Yunnan | Kunming, Western Hills and Dian Che, Stone Forest; Lijiang (several times) including Black Dragon Pool, Mu Mansion, overnight in a farmer’s home in tiny Nan Yao village nearby, Jade Dragon Snow Mountain and its meadow, Baisha and Yuhu villages (home of explorer and botanist Joseph Rock); Zhongdian/Shangri-La including Old Town and Songzanglin Monastery plus sites along the route including Tiger Leaping Gorge from both sides of the river, Baishuitai, Shidu and First Bend of the Yangtze River and Liming Ecological Area; Dali including San Tai Si, Butterfly Spring, Shaping, boating on Erhai Lake, visit to batik makers and marble cutters, more ; also Xishuangbanna including Jinghong, Menglun including Botanical Gardens, Mengla with Bronze Spire Pagoda and other small villages including a tiny Aini village reached only by bamboo raft over a swiftly-flowing river; boat ride on Mekong (Lancang) River |
| Zhejiang | Hangzhou-West Lake, Lingyin Monastery, Liuhe Pagoda, botanical garden, tea villages, silk factories, traditional medicine museum, more |
In addition to these tourist locations, I have been a guest in many, many Chinese people’s apartments and condos between 1988 and 2009 of all economic levels. I have traveled extensively by train, bus and Metro on my own as well as wandered around various large and middle-sized cities, just having a look. I think these experiences, maybe even more than visiting sites on the tourist map, plus my wide reading, give the best insight to a country and its people.
