Fabionodariphoto

31/07/2026

Some of the pictures I took in Guangxi and Hunan. Here more info:

https://www.fabionodariphoto.com/en/yangshuo-xingping-guilin-travel-guide/

29/07/2026

🏞️ The Yungang Grottoes (云冈石窟), just outside Datong, are one of China’s most important Buddhist sites. Carved mainly during the 5th and 6th centuries, the complex contains around 51,000 statues spread across hundreds of caves and niches.

🏛️ Some figures are monumental, while others are so small that you need to look closely to notice them. The details also reveal influences from different cultures that once travelled along the Silk Road.

🌸 Avoid visiting in summer, especially in July and August, when the site can be extremely crowded and hot. Spring and autumn offer better weather and a much more pleasant experience.

🚗 Planning a trip around Shanxi? Send me a DM if you need a reliable driver.

27/07/2026

In this article, you’ll find my travel guide to Shanxi Province, famous for its historic sites and sacred mountains.

In this article, you’ll find my travel guide to Shanxi Province, famous for its historic sites and sacred mountains.

26/07/2026

🏯 Shanxi is one of the best places in China to understand how architecture, religion and daily life have evolved over nearly a thousand years. From temples built into cliffs to wooden pagodas, Buddhist halls and old towns, each place tells a different part of the province’s history.

📍 Slides 1–2: Hanging Temple (悬空寺)
Built directly into a cliff near Hunyuan, the Hanging Temple is one of Shanxi’s most unusual landmarks. Its halls and narrow walkways appear to float above the valley, supported by a complex system of wooden beams inserted into the rock.

📍 Slides 3–5: Yingxian Wooden Pagoda (应县木塔)
Completed in 1056, the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is the oldest and tallest surviving multistorey wooden pagoda of its kind. What impressed me most was not only its size, but the fact that such a complex wooden structure has survived for almost a thousand years.

📍 Slide 6: Huayan Temple (华严寺)
Huayan Temple is one of the most important historical sites in Datong. Its architecture and painted sculptures preserve the artistic style of the Liao and Jin dynasties.

📍 Slide 7: Yuci Ancient Town (榆次古城)
Yuci Ancient Town combines traditional courtyards, temples and old streets. Some areas have been heavily restored, but it remains an interesting place to explore the architecture and urban layout of an old Shanxi town.

📍 Slides 8–9: Yong’an Temple (永安寺)
Yong’an Temple is much less famous than Shanxi’s major attractions, but its interior murals make it one of the most fascinating temples in the region. The detailed figures, colours and religious scenes cover large sections of the walls and create a completely different atmosphere from the temple’s simple exterior.

🚗 Travelling around Shanxi is much easier with a private driver, especially if you want to visit temples and historical sites outside the main cities. Send me a DM if you need a reliable driver contact.

22/07/2026

🏛️ Shanxi is one of the best places to understand how architecture developed in China.

Buddhism arrived from India and Central Asia, bringing new religious ideas, artistic styles and architectural forms. Local craftsmen adapted them to Chinese timber construction, local beliefs and the traditions of northern China.

The result is a unique mix of colossal Buddhas carved into cliffs, Tang Dynasty temple halls, wooden pagodas, ancient towns and sacred complexes where different traditions developed side by side.

📍 Slides 1 & 12: Yungang Grottoes (云冈石窟)
Carved mainly during the Northern Wei Dynasty, the Yungang Grottoes show how Buddhist art from India and Central Asia gradually developed into a more distinctly Chinese style. The caves contain thousands of statues, from tiny figures to monumental Buddhas.

📍 Slides 2, 3 & 4: Foguang Temple (佛光寺)
Hidden near Mount Wutai, Foguang Temple contains one of China’s most important surviving wooden buildings. Its East Main Hall dates to the Tang Dynasty and combines powerful timber architecture with Buddhist sculpture and worship.

📍 Slides 5, 6: Jinci Temple (晋祠)
Jinci is not a single temple, but a large historical complex combining ancestral worship, local legends, sacred springs, gardens and traditional Chinese architecture. It reflects the mixed spiritual culture found across China.

📍 Slides 7 & 8: Yingxian Wooden Pagoda (应县木塔)
Built during the Liao Dynasty, this Buddhist pagoda is one of the greatest surviving achievements of ancient wooden architecture. Its structure uses interlocking timber elements and complex dougong brackets.

📍 Slides 9 & 10: Xinzhou Ancient City (忻州古城)
Xinzhou preserves the atmosphere of a traditional northern Chinese city, with gates, temples, courtyards and commercial streets shaped by centuries of local life.

📍 Slide 11: Yuci Ancient Town (榆次老城)
Yuci brings together defensive walls, government buildings, temples, courtyards and traditional shops, showing the structure of an old Shanxi town.

Shanxi’s architecture is not the product of a single religion or culture. It developed through centuries of exchange, transforming outside influences.

13/07/2026

🇨🇳 Chongqing is a city defined by its dramatic vertical layers. Standing near the edge of Nanshan, you can look straight down at the dense, traditional grey-tiled roofs of Huangjueya Old Street, while the massive, modern skyline of the Jiefangbei district rises directly out of the river mist in the distance. It's a place where history coexists with the futuristic metropolis built all around it.

🏙️ The urban contrast here is stronger than in almost any other city. On one side, centuries-old architectural styles cling to the steep, green hillsides. Directly across the Yangtze River stands the Raffles City complex, a cluster of skyscrapers linked by a massive horizontal sky bridge. The transition from quiet, stone-paved alleyways to hyper-modern steel structures happens in the span of a single glance.

📐 This extreme topography and multi-layered layout served a critical strategic purpose during the war with Japan, when Chongqing became China's provisional capital. The city’s steep cliffs and dense rock layers allowed residents to carve out a massive network of underground air-raid shelters directly into the mountainside. This complex, vertical terrain effectively became a natural fortress, protecting hundreds of thousands of lives during years of relentless aerial bombardment.

📍 How to visit:

How to get there: Fly into Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport (CKG) or arrive via high-speed train at Chongqing North or West stations. Use CRT Subway Line 6 to access the riverfront areas, and local buses or taxis to ascend Nanshan Mountain.

Best season/time: Autumn (September to November) and Spring (March to May) provide the best weather.

Logistics or access notes: Prepare for heavy walking and endless staircases. Standard navigation apps often struggle with the city's multi-level geography, so download a local map app like AMap.

Photography tips: Use a mid-range zoom or telephoto lens from the mountain viewpoints to compress the old tiled roofs against the distant skyscrapers.

If you need more information about visiting this place, send me a DM.

13/07/2026

In a quiet corner of Hunan, far from the China most travelers know, there was once a script that most men could not read. It was written by women, sung by women, embroidered by women, and passed from one woman to another in a world where their official voice barely existed. This script was called Nüshu (女书), literally “women’s writing.”

Find out more about this forgotten story in my latest article:

Nüshu was a unique women’s script used to preserve emotions that had little space in public life. A story of struggle, memory and quiet resistance.

07/07/2026

06/07/2026

Read my Travel Guide to discover rural Guizhou beyond the famous tourist spots, with practical tips for visiting Miao villages, D**g villages, rice terraces, and hidden places.

Read my Travel Guide to discover rural Guizhou beyond the famous tourist spots, with practical tips for visiting this beautiful province.

05/07/2026

🏮 Rural Guizhou is a completely different world compared to the typical commercialized ancient towns in China. Driving through the winding mountain roads of Qiandongnan, you run into deep-valley settlements that feel like they haven't changed in generations. The villages are a dense maze of diaojiaolou, traditional multi-story stilted wooden houses built without a single nail.

🎵 Walking through the alleys, you get to witness the raw texture of daily life rather than a staged show. In one village, the solemn, piercing sound of suona horns echoes between the wooden walls as locals carry a massive, colorful funeral wreath through the narrow stone paths. In another corner, an elderly woman sits quietly on a small stool, meticulously stretching out threads on a handmade wooden loom frame, completely unfazed by the outside world.

🌾 The landscape itself is shaped by centuries of necessity. Looking down from the ridges, the wooden houses are tightly clustered next to vibrant green, terraced rice paddies and unique wooden drying racks built over the streams.

📍 How to visit:

Nearest city: Kaili or Congjiang (both accessible via high-speed rail from Guiyang).

How to get there: Hired private driver is mandatory. These specific off-the-beaten-path villages (like Huanggang or Dali) have no much reliable public transport routes linking them together.

Best season/time: late May for the filled, mirror-like irrigated terraces, or September to October for the golden autumn harvest. Early morning offers the best atmospheric mist rolling off the forested hills.

If you need more information about visiting this place, send me a DM.