The Painter’s China

Some places make me want to write.
China makes me want to learn how to paint.
Not well.
Let's establish that immediately.
But there are landscapes that seem to require a different language. Mountains disappearing into white. Cobalt dragged across porcelain. A garden composed around the exact shape of an empty window. A thousand-year-old wall still carrying the color someone placed there by hand.
Maybe this isn't a trip about learning to paint at all.
Maybe it's about learning to look.
Here are five places I'd start.