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China is a land that has fascinated the world for centuries. Take a journey in this book back to a China that is both stunning and mysterious, back to the places where tales of magic were born. Victoria Cass retells both popular and little-known stories of emperors and empresses, ghosts, spirits, warriors, maidens, and magical realms amid landscapes potent with history.

The stories are arranged by geography, providing an unprecedented look into how folklore and culture were shaped by China's natural surroundings. Cass shows us where mortals, demons and gods, have, for centuries, belonged, taking the reader on a "Grand Tour" of China. This is a book that will capture the imagination of a new generation of readers.

This book also goes where no other book on Chinese folk traditions has gone before by featuring stunning photography from some of China's most critically-acclaimed landscape photographers. Their studies of abandoned villas, vertiginous cliffs, night-time pathways, serene canals, and temples at dusk provide a rich visual compliment to the stories.
By presenting the stories and photographs together, Cass has assembled a perfect synthesis of words and images while showing how the physical and cultural geography of China are at the root of its most popular legends and its tales of the natural and supernatural. This book represents a stunning achievement in storytelling.