📖 Ancient, vast, evolving and exciting, China is the trip of a lifetime. It also happens to be a place that almost everyone in the world is talking about. Economists, historians, filmmakers, heads of state and business executives are among those watching closely as the country changes faster than expected, and asking what it means for their livelihoods. A trip to China begins to build an understanding of how it all really works.
Its beauties - both natural and man-made - vie for attention: mist-muffled hills silhouetted behind sampans on a winding river; proud pavilions of brilliant red and gold; the Great Wall undulating over ridges and mountains receding far into the distance; an elegant vase of eggshell-thin porcelain that has managed to survived the centuries. Here, all the senses are engaged. Touch a 2,000-year-old inscription in stone or a bolt of newly woven silk. Taste the food once served to emperors. Listen to children singing. Smell the temple incense or a fresh melon in the marketplace.