Vagabond Journey

Firsthand reporting on culture, globalization and changing places around the world.

Visit vagabondjourney.com

Written By

Wade Shepard (and contributors)

Travellers

Team

Focus

Culture

Popularity

23 / 100

Running Since

2004

Posts

2,713

Every few weeks

Last Updated

Jan 2026

About Vagabond Journey

Vagabond Journey was founded by Wade Shepard in 2004 and has been running for more than two decades. The site combines longform travel writing and on-the-ground reportage from Shepard and a small group of correspondents, investigating topics such as China, the New Silk Road, urbanization, disappearing traditions and the effects of globalization. The homepage claims thousands of posts and the sitemap lists more than 2,700 entries; the site draws more than 60,000 unique visitors a month. Readers will find personal essays, reportage and travel features, usually illustrated with the authors own photos and extensive links to sources.

What makes this site itself is a restless, essayistic curiosity that treats travel as reporting, not decoration. The writing excerpt is intimate, reflective and longform, the kind of piece that unfolds like a conversation over coffee. We come away with the sense of a journalist-writer who lives in places, digs into cultural and economic change, and turns those investigations into readable narrative and analysis. The site is strongest on China and globalization topics, practical reportage such as airport and visa essays, and personal travel diaries. It posts at a steady, measured pace of roughly two new pieces a month and often links outward heavily to context and sources.