Ports and exchange
Along the coast
Follow maritime cities from Song–Yuan trade and diaspora networks to treaty ports and manufacturing metropolises.
Open reading route ↗LIXIANGZHAI · CHINA CITY ATLASONGOING CATALOGUE / 2026
FROM THE EDITORS
Read Chinese cities through landscapes, roads and migration.
Lixiangzhai takes the city as its scale of observation, tracing how geography, historical turns, infrastructure and everyday life shape urban China today.
How did one port bring the world to Quanzhou?
READ CHAPTER ↗EDITORIAL APPROACH / How to read
A city is both a structure left by history and a way of life still in motion.
We begin with a map, a question and verifiable evidence, then read monuments, streets, transport, craft and ordinary lives as parts of the same urban story.
- 01Begin with geography
Landscapes, coasts and routes set the city’s first conditions.
- 02Read the turning points
War, trade, infrastructure and migration redirect its course.
- 03Return to daily life
Streets, craft and daily routines preserve the scale of history.
00 / GEOGRAPHIC & RELATIONSHIP INDEX
Enter through the map—and see how cities connect
Begin with location, then choose a relationship route to compare how water, ports, power, migration and landscape shape different cities.
Schematic coordinates support navigation and do not represent administrative boundaries. Select a route to connect cities by one shared theme.
BROWSE BY REGION
CITY RELATIONSHIP ROUTES
Northeast China
01 / City chapters
City index
Enter by name, region or theme, or use the map to discover relationships between cities.
Showing 30 city chapters
CITY / 01
Maritime trade in the Song–Yuan era
Quanzhou
How did one port bring the world to Quanzhou?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 02
Water, landscape and innovation
Hangzhou
How did water become Hangzhou’s imagination?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 03
Capital and Silk Roads
Xi’an
Why did Chang’an become a point of departure?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 04
River, memory and engineering
Nanjing
How does Nanjing live with its river and its memory?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 05
Axis and capital
Beijing
How can one axis organize a capital?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 06
Ancient capital and stone
Luoyang
How did Luoyang carve exchange into gates and cliffs?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 07
Two rivers, hills and migration
Chongqing
How did Chongqing turn steep terrain into a city of arrival?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 08
Plain, water and daily life
Chengdu
How did water management and markets sustain Chengdu?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 09
Two rivers, three towns and transport
Wuhan
How were three towns stitched into one transport hub?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 10
Coast, migration and reform
Shenzhen
How did movement of people become Shenzhen’s capacity to innovate?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 11
Water city, craft and gardens
Suzhou
How did Suzhou preserve the scale of work and life within a water network?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 12
Plateau lake and southern routes
Kunming
How did Kunming become a gateway between the plateau and southern worlds?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 13
Estuary, migration and metropolis
Shanghai
How did Shanghai organize constant arrivals into a world city?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 14
Pearl River, trade and Lingnan gateway
Guangzhou
How has Guangzhou renewed overseas trade for two millennia?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 15
Railway, migration and cold-climate city
Harbin
How did a railway gather Harbin in a northern climate?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 16
Strait, diaspora and modern port
Xiamen
How did the strait and Southeast Asian diaspora enter Xiamen’s daily life?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 17
Oasis, Silk Roads and caves
Dunhuang
Why did world cultures leave such dense traces in Dunhuang?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 18
Frontier, capital and grottoes
Datong
How did frontier pressure make Datong repeatedly rebuild order?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 19
Yellow River, canal and Song metropolis
Kaifeng
How did Kaifeng reach an urban peak between prosperity and flood?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 20
Karst, Li River and landscape imagination
Guilin
How did Guilin turn unusual geology into a shared image of Chinese landscape?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 21
Bay, colonial conflict and industrial port
Qingdao
How did Qingdao turn an imposed port plan into its own urban life?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 22
Xiang River, academy and modern change
Changsha
Why does Changsha repeatedly turn local culture into public expression?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 23
Pillars, mountain communities and tourism
Zhangjiajie
How did Zhangjiajie become a gateway through which the world encounters China’s landscapes?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 24
Cangshan, Erhai and Bai culture
Dali
How did a highland lake basin sustain Dali as a cultural center across centuries?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 25
Canal, salt and garden city
Yangzhou
How did Yangzhou turn canal wealth into a refined and open urban culture?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 26
Min River, lanes and maritime gateway
Fuzhou
How did Fuzhou preserve neighborhood order while remaining open to the world between mountain and sea?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 27
Water city, canal and cultural memory
Shaoxing
How does Shaoxing make a dense water network carry production, memory and daily urban life?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 28
Porcelain stone, kilns and world trade
Jingdezhen
How did Jingdezhen turn one craft into an urban system connecting the world?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 29
Shang city, Yellow River and rail hub
Zhengzhou
Why has Zhengzhou repeatedly been rebuilt around the idea of a central position?
Open chapter ↗CITY / 30
River, canal and modern industry
Tianjin
How did Tianjin become North China’s gateway to the world where rivers meet the sea?
Open chapter ↗No matching city. Try another keyword or theme.
02 / READING ROUTES
Follow one thread across Chinese cities
No city stands alone. Compare how water, routes, migration and power leave different traces from place to place.
Power and space
How capitals organize a world
Axes, gates, palaces, roads and waterways reveal how political order becomes walkable urban space.
Open reading route ↗Rivers and engineering
Negotiating with water
Water brings movement, scenery and livelihood—and also flood and limits. Read cities through canals, bridges and docks.
Open reading route ↗Frontiers and routes
When distance enters the city
Passes, roads, railways and migration turn supposed edges into places of encounter, conflict and recombination.
Open reading route ↗Landform and life
Landscape is not a backdrop
Pillars, lake basins, plains and designed scenery are viewed—but they also shape farming, movement, settlement and conservation.
Open reading route ↗Canal and city
North and south along the Grand Canal
Compare how one engineered water system shaped capital supply, salt and grain transport, markets, lanes and daily life.
Open reading route ↗Material and makers
When craft becomes a city
Porcelain, silk, lacquer, carving, brewing and port production reveal urban systems of resources, labor, markets and inherited knowledge.
Open reading route ↗Treaty ports, industry and sovereignty
Conflict and remaking in modern cities
Read treaty ports, railways and factories through imposed institutions, sovereignty, labor and the local reuse of urban space.
Open reading route ↗03 / Our approach
A city is a set of relationships in motion.
Each chapter selects evidence that serves its central question while preserving a broad historical arc. History, culture and technology follow the city’s own formation, with distinct periods clearly identified.
Read more ↗