Places TheWanderingEconomist Wants to Go

Order your phở stir-fried, sans soup.

Ho Chi Minh's perfectly preserved body has been on display here since 1975.

This steamed rice crepe specialist has been rolling up its namesake dish for over 30 years.

Monument to a brutal, ineffectual US bombing campaign and a sobering reminder of the human cost of the Vietnam War.

This spa in Hanoi is staffed exclusively by the visually impaired.

A bright turquoise river cascades beautifully down stepped terraces in southern China.

The largest radio telescope in the world searches for extraterrestrial life from the remote limestone peaks of southern China.

270 million year-old forest of stone.

An all-female order shares an ancient culinary art with visitors at their mountaintop monastery.

Buy your fish and have it cooked to order in this bustling, eight-floor seafood market.

The world's longest bridge fountain has hundreds of nozzles that create a beautiful, illuminated spectacle.

Home to more than 13,000 pieces of war memorabilia and military equipment.

About as hidden as can be, this specialty coffee shop is wedged between multi-story buildings at the end of a dark, skinny alleyway in Seoul.

A unique Shinto shrine filled with bunnies and wordplay.

All 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac are depicted in anthropomorphized deity form.

Home to a legend of the supernatural raccoon dog, a rare wooden structure of Edo, and witnesses of the Tokyo bombings.

Rubbing salt on this small stone dog is said to make wishes come true.

This one-of-a-kind indie publisher-bookshop specializes in archiving historic red-light districts and niche cultural topics of the Shōwa era.

This museum showcases the art of ancient sword-making.

Emerging from the sidewalk, this sculpture of a whale commemorates the importance of baleen in traditional Japanese puppetry.

Mythical beasts symbolizing the city of Tokyo guard a historic bridge.

A museum dedicated to the history of Tokyo's often-overlooked working-class district.

An eclectic temple with Chinese architecture, Korean lion-dogs, an Indian god and a legendary 700-year-old tree.

Discover the past, present, and future of packaging in this unique Japanese museum.