![Chinese provinces as watercolors](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chinese-provinces-as-watercolors-530x397.jpg)
Here’s a map unlike any you’ve likely seen. A Chinese artist, using water and ink, has reimagined Chinese provinces as dually simple and abstruse classical paintings. As posted on the website Portal (Chuansongmen), these are hand-drawn outlines of provinces and special administrative regions that are then filled in with splashes of watercolor. We don’t quite know what to make of it — neither does Beyond Chinatown, which has translated the province names. Maybe that’s for the better: let these depictions defy easy classification.
Now it’s up to someone to put these provinces together like a jigsaw.
Here’s Beijing:
![Watercolor provinces - Beijing](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Beijing-530x397.jpg)
And Shanghai:
![Watercolor provinces - Shanghai](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Shanghai-530x397.jpg)
And Hong Kong:
![Watercolor provinces - Hong Kong](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Hong-Kong-530x397.jpg)
And the armpit of Beijing, Tianjin:
![Watercolor provinces - Tianjin](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Tianjin-530x397.jpg)
Our favorite is Anhui:
![Watercolor provinces - Anhui](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Anhui-530x397.jpg)
But Yunnan is certainly colorful, which makes sense considering the province’s diversity.
![Watercolor provinces - Yunnan](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Yunnan-530x397.jpg)
But Henan had to be a sandy splotch of yellow, didn’t it? Poor Henan:
![Watercolor provinces - Henan](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Watercolor-provinces-Henan-530x397.jpg)
More here. If you want to play a fun game, see how many of the provinces and regions you can identify below before clicking over to Chuansongmen for the answers:
![Chinese provinces in watercolor](http://beijingcream.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Chinese-provinces-in-watercolor-530x576.jpg)
(H/T Reddit)