Pingyao

Wutai Qiao / Pingyao city walls at night

The walls themselves count as 'frozen-decay' — walk them at dusk.

Taiyuan Iron & Steel ('TISCO') area

Massive Mao-era steelworks; you transit through Taiyuan to/from Pingyao.

Yan'an (延安)

CCP wartime base from September 1937. Most inhabitants lived in yaodong cave dwellings carved into Loess Plateau hillsides after Japanese bombing destroyed nearly all surface buildings except a pagoda.

The original red base. Full pilgrim-circuit including yaodong cave houses Mao lived in. Major detour from Pingyao (~5h).

East Taihang Glasswalk

Another glass cliff walk.

Abandoned Medical University

Yan'an. Decaying campus, urbex bait.

Kangbashi District (康巴什区)

District of Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Internationally known as a 'ghost city' around 2009 due to its small population relative to built-up scale. Population reached ~120,000 by 2021.

Ordos ghost city — the original. Has slowly filled in but still surreal.

Zhangye National Geopark (张掖国家地质公园)

322 km² geopark in Linze and Sunan counties, Zhangye, Gansu. Striped-rainbow Danxia landforms — sedimentary rock sculpted by wind and rain.

Rainbow Danxia mountains. Very remote but unmistakably bucket-list.

Mogao Caves / Caves of the Thousand Buddhas (莫高窟)

System of ~500 Buddhist temples 25 km southeast of Dunhuang, Gansu. 1,000 years of Buddhist art on the Silk Road. UNESCO.

Dunhuang Buddhist grottoes. UNESCO. Pair with Singing Sands; major detour.

Mingsha Shan and Crescent Lake (鸣沙山·月牙泉)

Towering 'singing' sand dunes about 6 km south of Dunhuang, Gansu, that produce a deep booming sound when the sand shifts. Wraps around the small crescent-shaped freshwater oasis lake of Yueyaquan.

Dunhuang — pair with Mogao if going.

Mati Temple / Mati Si (马蹄寺)

Buddhist cliff-cave temple complex in the Qilian Mountains south of Zhangye, Gansu. Grottoes, sculptures, and murals first carved in the Northern Liang/Jin period (~4th–5th c.). Name means 'Horse Hoof Temple'.

Cliff caves, Zhangye area. Pair with Geopark.

Jiaohe Ruins (交河故城) / Yarghul

Capital of the Tocharian Jushi Kingdom 108 BC – 450 AD, on a 1,650 m islet between river branches in the Yarnaz Valley, 10 km west of Turpan, Xinjiang. Important Silk Road stop.

Carved earth city near Turpan. Spectacular but Xinjiang detour.

Yumen Old Refinery

If you do Yumen Ghost Town anyway — adjacent decaying refinery is where the actual collapse happened.

Khara-Khoto (黑城 / 黑水城)

Walled city founded 1032, traded under the Tangut Western Xia dynasty. ~25 km south of Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia. Sacked by Genghis Khan 1226; abandoned ~1380. 9.1 m ramparts.

Tangut-era fortress in the Gobi. Stunning but extreme detour.

Badain Jaran Desert Lakes

The Badain Jaran Desert in Inner Mongolia/Alxa contains 140+ spring-fed lakes nestled between some of the world's tallest stationary sand dunes (megadunes). Some freshwater, some hypersaline; colors shift seasonally.

Badain Jaran. Extreme detour.

Yumen / Laojunmiao Old District (玉门老市区)

Western Gansu, where China's first oilfield was established in 1939. After the city government relocated in 2003, the old urban area's population fell from ~135,000 to ~15,000.

Oil boom-bust town in Gansu. Atmospheric but very remote.

Qinghai-Tibet Railway / Tanggula Station

Runs from Xining to Lhasa with 960+ km of track above 4,000 m — the highest railway line in the world. Tanggula Station at 5,068 m is the world's highest railway station.

World's highest train. Need to BE traveling Tibet.

Livestock Market

Kashgar. Xinjiang far.