Live Your Best Lives
Hello everyone, I am Youhun Xiaoliu, the promotion ambassador of cultural travel.
At this time last year, China-TravelNote Cultural Travel ushered in its three-year anniversary. I was like a night walker holding a torch, telling you on this side of the screen a series of stories about traveling with Black Wukong, retracing the Silk Road, and visiting the cave corridors.
This year, the torch was passed to a larger group of "crazy people" - the China-TravelNote Humanities Travel Product Manager Team!
Some of them are ardent fans of ancient buildings, and they travel all over the mountains just to find ancient buildings;
Some use cameras to record history, hoping to preserve memories before the cultural relics disappear;
Some people like two things in their lives: one is reading local chronicles, and the other is walking on forgotten ancient roads.
Today, let them take you into the six major cultural traditions of China.
Departing from Shanxi, retracing Lianglin Road to explore ancient buildings and feel the warmth of history between the eaves and brackets;
Then we went to Xi'an and Luoyang, wandered in the ancient capital, and witnessed the rise and fall of dynasties from every brick and tile;
Deep in Sichuan, the ancient Shu Road echoes the swords of the Three Kingdoms period, and the Anyue Dazu Rock Carvings embody the pious craftsmanship of the ancients;
Traveling to the south of the Yangtze River, the Huizhou Merchants Road reflects the ups and downs of the business world; the Tang Poetry Road in eastern Zhejiang, where poetry meanders along the mountains and rivers;
Heading to Gansu, the Mogao Grottoes' flying murals and the Maiji Mountain's Buddhist shrines stand still, where culture blossoms amidst the yellow sands.
Finally arriving in Quanzhou, the Citong Port is engraved with the prosperous past of the Maritime Silk Road and shuttles through the millennium cultural star river.
After wandering for thousands of years, I calm down and think about it. Is cultural travel just a waste of money or an irreplaceable sentiment?
Product Manager: Cucu
Product Manager, China-TravelNote Xi'an Station
Representative works of the route: Light of Ancient Buildings, Clouds and Mists on the Wall
Hello everyone, I am Cu Cu, a product manager who has been working at China-TravelNote Xi’an Station for 6 years.
As a "living map of the Qin and Jin dynasties," I'm actually a P-human soul encased in a J-human shell. Before setting out, I'm meticulously crafting my strategy, then upon arrival, I'm instantly captivated by the ancient building's brackets. I can count the mortise and tenon joints on a pillar until sunset. (Don't ask; asking is an occupational hazard!)
Shanxi's ancient buildings, Shaanxi's Forest of Steles, Henan's Longmen—every shovelful of them is filled with history. Every time I lead a group into an ancient temple, and see everyone go from, "What's so good about this shabby house?" to, "Wow, this bracket set is from the Tang Dynasty," I feel like an old mother watching her child become enlightened—happier than winning the lottery herself.
I'm often moved to tears by the little things in life. As the sun sets, swallows flutter like black silk ribbons around the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda. A group of us sit in its shadow, listening to our teacher tell stories about Liang Sicheng. Wind chimes tinkle on the eaves, and the scenery changes with the seasons. Suddenly, tears well up in my eyes. Who would dare to leave? This isn't a journey; it's a call to civilization across time and space.
I still remember that in late autumn last year, I led a team to Kaihua Temple in Gaoping. When we climbed up the long steps breathlessly, no one expected that when we pushed open the mottled door, we would encounter a cultural drama that spanned thousands of years.
Even before we even set foot in the main hall, I was already captivated by the murals in the adjacent digital exhibition hall. Flower sellers carrying baskets in teahouses and taverns, porters unloading goods on the banks of the Bian River, came to mind. As we held our breath and stepped into the main hall, our teacher, holding a cold-light flashlight, moved over the mural depicting the story of Prince Shanyou. The spotlight revealed the bloodstains of the prince's gouged eyes, yet the gold leaf of the lotus on his palm remained intact. The girl accompanying us suddenly sniffed: "This is more heartbreaking than watching a TV drama!"
Then, during the torrential downpour in Shanxi, the group chat erupted. Some people dug up photos they'd taken at Kaihua Temple, and someone directly @ed me: "Cucu, what can we do?" Watching everyone spontaneously contact their tour leaders and connect with cultural heritage agencies, I suddenly understood Lin Huiyin's feelings at Foguang Temple. These clay sculptures, broken steles, and pillars aren't just attractions; they're cultural genes etched into our very bones. The joys and sorrows of millennia ago always strike a chord in our hearts.
Standing on the Guanzhong Plain, gazing at the endless expanse of imperial tombs, I am always reminded of Du Fu's line, "Qinzhong has been the imperial state since ancient times." When many people hear me say I want to take them to see the tombs, their first reaction is that it's bad luck.
But when they revisited the devastated Guanzhong Imperial Tombs, passing through the ground, steles, stone carvings, winged horses, mythical beasts, and rammed earth, they suddenly understood: this is not a mound of graves, but a time capsule standing on the earth.
We have revised the plan for this route countless times, cut out popular tourist attractions, tore off the labels of "I've been here", and carefully selected the most representative imperial tombs/tombs/underground palaces/museums in Guanzhong, just to give everyone a cultural feast and reveal the secrets of the rise and fall of countless dynasties.
Product Manager: Kehang
Product Manager, China-TravelNote Jiangsu Station
Route Representative: Glory of the Ancient Capital
Hello everyone, I am Kehang, a travel planner who is obsessed with finding stories in the folds of history. I am interested in photography and researching travel itineraries.
For me, every scenic spot in Henan is a key to unlock history, and my job is to string these keys into a shining itinerary like a necklace.
Henan itself is a living textbook of ancient capitals.
Yinxu is the key to unlocking the code of the Shang Dynasty. The 150,000 pieces of oracle bones unearthed here are the source of Chinese characters; the writing style of "ding" can be found in the patterns of bronze ware; the 755 jade artifacts unearthed from Fu Hao's tomb prove the status and aesthetic taste of female aristocrats 3,000 years ago.
Cultural travel is like having a God’s perspective. You stand on the shoulders of your predecessors and look back. Every inscription you see and every brick you touch are interesting Easter eggs left by the ancients for the future.
Product Manager: Monkey
Tourists Style Manager
Representative route: Tracing the Ancient Shu
Hello everyone, I am Monkey. As a native of Jiange, leading a team along the ancient Shu Road is like delivering a letter home to my fellow villagers.
This cobblestone road holds countless stories from the past, which I love to share with tourists: Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, his feather fan gently waving, Xuanzang's final chanting before his westward journey, Lu You's sigh of "riding a donkey into Jianmen in the drizzle"...
New this year, "Tracing the Shu Road" is a key itinerary for cultural hikes. I designed this route after studying ancient texts and conducting on-site explorations, prioritizing cultural heritage over hiking. When you're tired, sit by the ancient trail and listen to the stories told by the cultural tour guide.
Standing before the more than 7,000 statues at Qianfo Cliff, a local guide explains how Tang Dynasty craftsmen carved these cliff faces. The most surprising experience was the immersive storytelling performance in Zhaohua Ancient City. When the wake-up call was struck, you felt like a Shu Han soldier obeying Zhuge Liang's orders.
The Ancient Shu Road is not a tourist attraction, but a way home that is engraved in the bones of us people in northern Sichuan.
Product Manager: Xueyu Shura
Product Manager, China-TravelNote Chengdu Station
Representative route: Bashu Grottoes
Hello everyone, I am Xueyu Shura, a humanities travel enthusiast, photography enthusiast, and special contributor to the Planetary Research Institute and China National Geographic.
I've also been a veteran on the western Sichuan plateau for ten years. When I'm out and about, I always have a few books and a camera stuffed in my bag. Don't ask, it's an occupational hazard. (call back)
I remember the first time I led a group to Anyue Mingshan Temple. The mountain wind was howling, and I raised my camera. Suddenly, I saw the folds of the Buddha's robes ripple in the wind. The lines seemed to sway, and my mind went blank. Clearly weathered by millennia of wind and rain, it was as if the deity had come alive, floating in the breeze.
Shakyamuni said: "Buddha is sentient beings, sentient beings are Buddhas." Therefore, these caves are traces of both human beings and Buddhas; the thousand Buddhas are sentient beings.
Product Manager: Asen
China-TravelNote Northwest Product Manager
Representative route: Millennium Dunhuang
Hello everyone, I am Asen. I joined China-TravelNote because I have a strong interest in traveling.
I like to explore the culture of different places. As a child who grew up in the eastern Fujian region, I really thought that all bridges in the world should have eaves. It was not until I grew up and went traveling with a backpack that I found that things were different from what I imagined. This planted the seed of studying cultural travel in my heart.
Why is Dunhuang so deeply ingrained? I'd like to cite a personal example: I remember the Wan'an Bridge in my hometown burned down last year. Looking at the charred structure, I remembered its former beauty and resolved to visit all of Fujian's covered bridges and capture them with my camera. In a way, what I do is similar to what the Dunhuang guardians do: we both want to preserve our civilization and allow more people to witness these fragile yet beautiful cultural relics.
The 735 caves of Dunhuang, which are disappearing, contain brilliant artistic treasures, including murals, statues, and classics... This time, we have joined hands with the Dunhuang Research Institute to carefully select 17 caves + 4 special caves from different historical periods, and also arranged the production of mineral pigments, so that you can understand the beauty of Dunhuang at a glance after a thousand years.
Hi everyone, I'm Cucu, who mentioned me earlier. Compared to the much-loved Hexi Corridor Grottoes, the Longdong Grottoes are quite low-key. From Chang'an to Longshang, you'll find grottoes, statues, murals, ancient buildings, and painted sculptures. From the smiling faces of Buddhas enshrined in temples to the whispers of gods hidden in ancient villages in the mountains, you'll find them all.
Besides the Maijishan Grottoes, I highly recommend the Luohan Cave Grottoes. The mottled murals on the walls are cracked, peeling, and incomplete, yet they still amaze you, allowing you to imagine the prosperity of this place in the past. The cultural relics conservators here are local farmers, but they are very dedicated to their work.
Luohan Cave Grottoes
That year, our team went here specifically to conduct an inspection. We saw the cultural relic protector, who was wearing a green Zhongshan suit from the 1990s, telling us about the past and present of these murals. He had learned all these by reading books at the age of sixty, and he used his passion to master and pass on knowledge.
This makes me more determined that we can contribute to the advancement of cultural travel with our passion.
Product Manager: Jiusan
Product Manager of China-TravelNote East China
Representative route: Tang Poetry Road in Eastern Zhejiang
Hello everyone, I am Jiusan, a "gai-liuzi" who walks around the streets. When I arrive at a new place or come across a village while hiking, I will definitely go in to "wander around" and chat with the residents.
The fastest way to understand local culture is to integrate into local life, talk with locals and listen to their stories about the past.
China-TravelNote: The origins of the Tang Poetry Route of Eastern Zhejiang lie in a city walk through Shaoxing, from the Eight-Character Bridge to the Ancient Canal Path, and then on foot to Kuaiji Mountain. Through conversations with locals and research, I learned that Shaoxing is part of the Tang Poetry Route of Eastern Zhejiang, and this sparked a strong interest in exploring this route.
Dayu Mausoleum, Kuaiji Mountain - Xianglu Peak
This thousand-year-old ancient road, engraved with poetry, runs from Hangzhou and Shaoxing on the banks of the Qiantang River, through the Cao'e River and Shanxi River, all the way to Tiantai Mountain. It attracted more than 400 Tang Dynasty poets to wander along it, leaving behind more than 1,500 poems handed down from generation to generation.
Let us follow in Li Bai’s footsteps thousands of years ago, walk along this poetic and picturesque road, and experience the carefree life of a Tang Dynasty poet!
Product Manager: Ming Ming
Product Manager of China-TravelNote East China
Representative route: Huizhou Merchants Road
Hello everyone, I am Mingming, a "mountain kid" who has been going to the mountains whenever he has free time since he was young, and is obsessed with exploring the "ancient road culture".
I usually like to do two things the most: one is to look through the Huizhou County Chronicles and dig out those forgotten ancient roads; the other is to carry a camera to the mountains to "pick up junk" and take pictures of abandoned ancient pavilions, blurred stone tablets and broken walls.
When designing the Huizhou Merchants' Road, I insisted on having everyone walk back from Lin'an to Huizhou. A colleague asked, "Why do you enter the Huizhou Ancient Road from Lin'an? Why not just take the essential section in Jixi? What's the point?"
Actually, I want everyone to experience Huizhou from the perspective of a "Huizhou merchant returning home." At the age of 13, under pressure from his family, the renowned merchant Hu Xueyan made several trips alone, carrying goods on his shoulders, on foot along the Huihang Ancient Road to Hangzhou.
Every step we take now is actually the way the Hui merchants took to return home back then. When we go down the mountain towards Jixi, the setting sun lengthens our shadows and casts them on the stone steps. At that moment, we really feel that we are one of the millions of Hui merchants, passing by Hu Xueyan carrying a tea basket.
The details of these personal experiences during the hike are more vivid than any text recorded in a textbook. I want everyone to measure history with their feet and take everyone to see the mountains and rivers where Huizhou culture is rooted.
Product Manager: Lemon
China-TravelNote Fujian Product Manager
Representative routes: Why Quanzhou, World Heritage Southern Fujian
Hello everyone, I’m Lemon. As a native of Gulangyu Island, I grew up in a poetic atmosphere, and the seeds of literature were planted early on. Later, when I was studying at Xiamen University, I was exposed to Taiwanese music and became a little hippie. Although I was tempered by the reality when I first entered society, my passion for literature has never been extinguished.
I've worked in road sign preservation and cultural conservation, helping people learn about architecture and protect local history. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that cultural tourism and commerce can be mutually beneficial. Travelers gain insights into local culture, and we can also contribute to local conservation efforts.
Later, I moved to Hangzhou to develop itineraries and became the initial product manager for China-TravelNote's cultural citywalk. A few years ago, I worked on the Treasure Town project, and even Taiwanese compatriots signed up to explore their cultural roots. Each group has its own unique story, and these diverse experiences are like pearls that connect my passion for cultural travel.
I have planned two routes, one is the Quanzhou big-name tour, and the other is the Southern Fujian World Heritage Architecture theme tour.
Because I am a local native, I have a better understanding of the path to World Heritage status. I also met many teachers when optimizing the route and continued to add more authentic cultural genes to this route.
Finally, I’d like to invite everyone to be the guest of this article’s product manager and briefly talk about my experience in “humanistic travel” over the years.
Vinegar
There is no need for any reason to like cultural travel. Naturally, you will be attracted and moved by the cultural imprints left over from the years, and want more people to see its beauty.
Navigable
The essence of travel is to achieve a sense of fulfillment through spatial transformation, detaching from the old and exploring the new. I believe that cultural travel is even more rewarding, not only in terms of what we see but also in our hearts.
Asen
I enjoy cultural travel, which encompasses both the past and the present. Past experiences involved firsthand experience of historical relics; present experiences, whenever I visit a city, I always visit markets and old towns to experience the "human stories" happening in the present moment.
Snowland Shura
The knowledge learned in textbooks and the photos you see come alive during your journey. As you lace up your shoes and set out, you feel the warmth of Qin and Han bricks and tiles, listen to the echoes of Tang and Song poetry, and resonate with history like a pilgrim's footsteps.
Mingming
Cultural travel is like a dialogue with time and space. Standing at the "Nantianmen" of the Huihang Ancient Road and touching the indentations on the bluestone road, it seems as if you can really hear the breathing of the Hui merchants who were on the road hundreds of years ago, and see them wiping the sweat and taking a break to rest.
Nine Three
I think cultural travel can help us gain a deeper understanding of the history of a place, break through narrow-mindedness and bias, step out of the virtual world of various opinions on the Internet, and personally experience the local culture and customs, thereby gaining our own unique perspectives.
Lemon
Cultural travel is a powerful bridge, connecting the past and present and bringing people closer together. I want travelers to deeply connect with local culture and for the culture passed down by local conservators to be passed into the hands and hearts of more people.
monkey
Cultural travel is not out of reach. Many cultural relics are right next to us. As a Jiange native, I sincerely invite everyone to take a walk along the ancient Shu Road and experience the spiritual connection with the ancients.
Wandering Soul Xiaoliu
You asked me why I like cultural travel?
I remember that I came to Luoyang when the peonies were in bloom, and the capital was moved by the blooming season;
Climbing up to Maiji in the mist, I watched the Sakya Huizi in Cave 133 weeping uncontrollably;
Visit the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang when the snow falls silently, and linger there;
Indulge in the smile of the Northern Wei Dynasty at the Yungang Grottoes in Datong;
I remember I once pretended to be Li Bai walking on the Tang Poetry Road;
Take a motorcycle taxi and visit the Anyue stone carvings one by one in the dust;
Bent over the desk, he wrote a series of local chronicles: Searching for Citong City, From Bianjing to Lin'an, the royal aura of Jinling has never faded...
I remember those carefully planned theme marketings and the joy I felt every time I completed a writing project.
I know that long-termism is by no means a cliché, but rather it means not being confused by short-term impulses, making every step meaningful and hopeful.
Cultural travel is something I still love, and I will continue on this path.
When you have seen the brackets of ancient buildings in Shanxi, seen the flying figures on the murals in Dunhuang, and walked across the Luoyang Bridge in Quanzhou, the cultural context solidified in time will eventually become the cultural genes in your bones and blood.
Depart from Dunhuang | 5 days and 4 nights
5-Day Cultural Tour of Dunhuang: 17 Caves + 4 Special Caves
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