Above: The festival is organized each year by the local government.

As China’s urbanization continues at a canter, the seventh annual Yixian International Photo Festival begins on November 2 in China’s Anhui province—surrounded by a UNESCO-listed area of outstanding natural beauty. The festival takes place at the Yixian Museum of Art and ancestral halls in seven neighboring villages over the course of a week, with each venue hosting its own exhibitions, films, lectures, and seminars. The central aim of what will be a broad program is to examine China’s urban divide. Yi County is famed for the Huangshan Mountain range—which receives almost 20 million visits a year—a wilderness feeling the effects of globalization. Full details of the program schedule are available here.

November 2-8; yixianfotofest.org/en