Travel historic China with Counterpoint author Bill Porter in this three-book set.

The first of this series of three China travel memoirs to be published by Counterpoint, Bill Porter’s South of the Clouds tells the story of a spread of land with a thousand years of human history. His remarkable insight and unparalleled understanding of China place this book at the forefront of East Asian travel literature.

In the fall of 1992, Mr. Porter left his home in Hong Kong and decided to travel from China to Pakistan by way of this famous and often treacherous Silk Road. Equipped with a plastic bottle of whiskey, needle-nose pliers, and the companionship of an old friend, Porter embarks upon the journey on the anniversary of Hong Kong’s liberation from the Japanese after World War II and concludes in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, at the end of the monsoon season. The Silk Road is the second of the three books resulting from that trip.

Finally, Mr. Porter decided to travel through the land south of the Yangtze, following the old post roads that still connected its administrative centers and scenic wonders, its most famous hometowns and graves, and he was joined on this journey by his poet and photographer friends, Finn Wilcox and Steve Johnson. South of the Yangtze is a record in words and black-and-white images of their trip.

Counterpoint Press was created in 2007 through the acquisition of three notable independent presses: Counterpoint, Shoemaker & Hoard, and Soft Skull Press.