It is true that over the past 30 years, as we have had more opportunities to travel to China, meet Chinese people, and experience China directly and indirectly, our understanding of China has greatly improved.
But on the other hand, such experiences and perceptions are still scattered like islands in the sea or puzzle pieces for many people.
Because the areas and cultures we can see and experience are limited.
This book is designed to be a guide to help us assess the relative positions of our scattered impressions, experiences, and knowledge of China, and to connect them.
This book proposes to connect the history and culture of diverse groups of people in different environments across China through the fragments of cities.
Traces of China's history and cultural sites are not confined to its cities, but in cities, traces of collective life—language, food, architecture, literary works—remain even more densely and vividly.

This book covers 15 cities that serve as benchmarks for experiencing and understanding China's humanities, that is, the traces of human life that have been shaped historically.
Of course, these 15 cities alone cannot fill the entire puzzle of China's human geography.
However, these cities are also the destination and starting point of a cultural tour of China.
If we gradually expand our experience and understanding of the history and culture embedded throughout the city to neighboring cities and regions, the 15 cities introduced in this book will no longer remain isolated fragments, like dots on a map or islands in the sea.