The best book on the spread of Buddhism to China from India is still the old 1964 published, Buddhism in China: A Historical Survey by…

Chinese Houses [2004] by Ronald G Knapp is an excellent book to dip into after a tour of Shanxi. In his book, which has won…

Wang Family Compound. Day 5 of the tour. The Wang Family Compound, also known as the Wang Family Mansion, is the largest of Shanxi’s courtyard…

Zhangbi Ancient Castle. Day 5 of Tour. Hamas’s idea of having tunnels as a defense system in Gaza was already in use in China in…

Day 4 sees us on a 90-minute drive from Taiyuan to a well-preserved ancient city, founded in the Zhou dynasty, called Pingyao Ancient City. Pingyao…

Taiyuan is an ancient city. I visited it on my tour of Shanxi. Unfortunately, the ancient parts of Taiyuan are all gone. That said, Shanxi…

The Ming Emperor Yongle built the Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven. In 1420, Yongle moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing. The Temple…

Mount Wutai, ‘the five terrace mountains’, is the highest in Northern China and is remarkable for its five open treeless peaks. Mount Wutai is one…