After Hangzhou, which was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty, I am now in Kaifeng – the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty is my favorite dynasty. It was a period of scientific, cultural and economic prosperity of China. In fact, three out of four great inventions of Ancient China were finalized during the Song Dynasty – gunpowder, magnetic compass and printing press….

I have arrived to Nanjing late at night and took Didi (Chinese Uber) to my hostel. Unfortunately, my hostel was not on the main road so my Didi left me to look around for it. This is the worst – you have to go to the trip.com page and look for photos of the hostel from outside to try to find it. Everything is in Chinese and even people who work in the same building did not know where it was….

The first thing you need to know about Zhangjiajie is that it consists of two mountains:
1. Tianmen mountain – near Zhangjiajie city (this is where the train station is).
2. Avatar mountains (Zhangjiajie Natural Forest Park) – near a town called Wulingyuan….

During my preparation for this trip, I have marked Hangzhou as one of the highlights of my trip. It is described as the most beautiful of the imperial capitals of China, it is very close to two amazing mountains – the famous Yellow Mountain (Huangshan) and the greatly...

I have arrived to Jiayuguan in the evening. My plan is to stay there for 2 nights only. Jiayuguan is strategically one of the most important cities in Chinese history: it is the narrowest point of the Hexi corridor, the gateway to Central Asia…..

One of the main reasons to visit China is to see the Great Wall. The Great Wall is a series of fortifications stretching for over 5000 kilometers. The easiest and most convenient starting point for exploring the Wall is Beijing….