Nicholas Che Ng

Duck skin crackles under the carver’s blade, fat rendered thin and glass-clear, the meat beneath left pink and loose enough to fold into a pancake without tearing. Meals in Beijing move along a straight line the way the city itself does, laid out on a north-south axis that has not shifted in six centuries, palace gates opening onto avenues that lead to altars, markets, and now to private dining rooms hidden behind unmarked doors.

May rewards a route from the northern uplands to the equator, and the weather changes the brief at every stop. Around Hohhot the air runs dry and the days clear, warm enough to be outdoors yet cold enough at night for a fire and a sky thick with stars, the pull of the canyon country before summer. Beijing hits its most walkable stretch, warm and dry ahead of July humidity, so hutong mornings and museum afternoons hold.

April in Peninsular Malaysia operates within a narrow band of discomfort that rewards planning. Penang sits at an average high of 33 degrees Celsius with humidity that peaks through late morning, making the window between seven and ten in the morning the most useful stretch of the day for walking.