All Inclusive 14 Days China Silk Road Adventure

Summary

DAY 1: Arrive in Xian
DAY 2: Xian: Terracotta Warriors, Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Xian Dumpling Banquet, Tang Dynasty Dance Show
DAY 3: Xian--Lanzhou by Trian: Shaanxi History Museum, Ancient City Wall, Muslim Quarter, Take train to Lanzhou
DAY 4: Lanzhou: Yellow River Mother's Statue, Waterwhell Garden, Zhongshan Bridge, Bingling Temple & Buddha Statues
DAY 5: Lanzhou--Dunhuang by Flight: Gansu Provincial Museum, Fly to Dunhuang
DAY 6 Dunhuang: Echoing-Sand Dune, Crescent Lake, Yumen Pass
DAY 7 Dunhuang--Turpan by train: Dunhuang Grottoes, take overnight train to Turpan
DAY 8 Turpan: Gaochang Ancient City, Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Cave, Flaming Mountain
DAY 9 Turpan--Urumqi by Vehicle: Karez Well, Emin Minaret, drive to Urumqi
DAY 10 Urumqi: Xinjiang Regional Musuem, Xinjiang Cooking Class, Huanggangshan Giant Buddga, Erdaoqiao Grand Bazaar
DAY 11 Urumqi--Kashgar by Flight: Livestock Market, Sunday Market, Grand Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar Ancient Town, Local Uighur Family Dinner
DAY 12 Kashgar: Opal Village, Oytagh Kunlunshan Colorful mountain range, Gaz Valley, Bulungkol Valley (white sand mountain), Karakul lake and local Kyrgyz family visit.
DAY 13 Kashgar--Urumqi by Flight: Heavenly Lake(Tianchi)
DAY 14 Urumqi Departure

DAY 1 Xian Arrival

Welcome to China Xian! Upon on your arrival in Xian, your Xian local guide will pick you up at the exit of airport with a welcome sign "China Silk Road Tour". And escorted you to your hotel, your guide will help you check in. The rest of the day is free on your own to relax and recover your jetlag.

DAY 2 Xian

After breakfast, meet you guide at your hotel lobby at appointed time and take you to Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum. It is known as "the eighth Wonders of the world", the museum shows a surprisingly high level in sculpture, which is listed as the most significant discovery of the 20th century. Up to now, there has discovered a total of 179 accompanying burial pits of different connotations and various shapes in Qinshihuang's Mausoleum area. The terracotta figures are life-sized. They vary in height, uniform, and hairstyle in accordance with rank. The faces appear different for each individual figure, scholars however have identified 10 basic face shapes.

After lunch, you will be transferred back to Xian downtown. You'll head for the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, also named Giant Wild Goose Pagoda. The pagoda is a Buddhist pagoda, located in southern Xian. It become the symbol of the old-line Xian. The Big Wild Goose Pagoda was built in 652 during the Tang Dynasty and originally had five stories. It attracts numerous visitors for its fame in the Buddhist religion and its simple but appealing style of construction. Now the Big Wild Goose Pagoda enjoys rich Buddhist culture, profound figures, splendid architectural art,etc, so it is regarded as the gem of Chinese ancient architectural history and a sacred Buddhist land. It is both the landmark of Xian city and the vital place for the welcoming foreign leaders and friends.

In the evening, you will have a Xi'an Dumpling Banquet for dinner, which is very famous food in Xi'an. Our tour guide will lead you to Shaanxi Grand Opera House and help you find your seat. It is a must for visitors to try is the delicious dumplings. After dinner, you'll enjou the most famous night show in Xian--'The Tang Dynasty Dance Show'. The Tang Dynasty Show is an excellent performance that fully displays the essence of music and dance art of the Tang Dynasty (618–907), keeping alive its splendid culture and providing an insight into the peaceful life style of the period, and it is praised to be the premier pseudo-classic show in China.

Drop you off at your lovely hotel after the show ends.

DAY 3 Xian-Lanzhou by Train

After breakfast, drive you to visit Shaanxi History Museum, which is one of the four largest museum with modern facilities in China. The museum, built in traditional Tang architectural style, houses over 370,000 cultural relics, including murals, paintings, pottery, coins, as well as bronze, gold, silver, seal and stone objects, all of which can be dated back to over 1 million years ago to the late Qing dynasty.  It was regarded as "the pearl of ancient dynasties and house of Chinese treasures" where reflect over one thousand years of Chinese history, the splendid culture and people life in ancient times. It not only show the span of culture in ancient Shaanxi, but also show the highest level of cultural development of China's social economy.

Next, pay a visit to Xian Ancient City Wall. As one of the UNESCO's World Heritage Site, Xi'an Ancient City Wall was built in the 14th century, under the regime of Emperor Zhuyuanzhang in Ming dynasty, had the function of protecting the cities or towns as military defense systems in ancient China. Xi'an Ancient City Wall is one of the oldest, largest and best preserved Chinese city walls, exhibits the "complete features of the rampart architecture of feudal society".

After lunch, stroll down the Muslim Quarter. The Muslim Quarter is located 100 meters west of Bell Tower, which is one of the most well-known parts of the city. The street is lined on both sides with different shapes and different size, it features silk scarves, name chops, colorful farmer's paintings, traditional Shaanxi handicrafts, like the delicate and beautiful 'paper cuts'.

At the end, transfer you to Xian train station to catch the train to Lanzhou, it takes around 3 hrs. Upon arrival, our Lanzhou local tour guide will pick you up at the exit of the train station with the sign "China Silk Road Tour". Drive to your hotel for check-in, the rest day is free on your own.

DAY 4 Lanzhou

In the morning, our tour guide will meet you at your hotel lobby. Your first stop for today is Yellow River Mother's Statue. It was apprai sed as a piece of excellent work in the First Chinese City Sculpture Design Contest. The Yellow River Mother Sculpture has become a landmark building of Lanzhou. It is a granite-structured full relief that's composed of a mother and a baby boy. The pedestal of the sculpture is carved with patterns of ripples and fishes, which derive from the ancient painted pottery patterns of Gansu, fully reflecting the long history of Gansu Province.

Next, you'll head for Waterwheel Garden. It is situated at the west end of Binhe Road, Lanzhou with the Sculpture of the Yellow River Mother to the west, the White Pagoda Mountain Park to the north and the White Cloud Temple to the south, and it's another highlight along the Yellow River in Lanzhou. Serving as the oldest irrigation tools in Lanzhou,the time-honored waterwheels appeared in Lanzhou during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644); they are shaped strangely and known as the Irrigation Wheel and the Tiger Wheel. Now the Waterwheel Garden has become popular not only among the citizens but also the tourists. The garden also houses shops, photo studios and even a sculpture made of the bushes, imitating a family of elephants. To make impressions of the city complete when visiting Lanzhou you should take a walk in the Waterwheel Garden, you'll fully know the waterwheel culture.

Later, visit Zhongshan Bridge. The Zhongshan Bridge was the first permanent bridge over the Yellow River. The bridge located in Lanzhou, Gansu. Construction of the bridge began in 1907 and the bridge was completed in 1909. The Zhongshan Bridge, or the Yellow River Iron Bridge, dubbed "the First Bridge across the Yellow River," it has become one of the city's landmarks. Before its construction, there was a bateau bridge named Zhenyuan Bridge, which had been built in 1398. In 1907, engineers from Belgium, Germany and the U.S., together with local workers, jointly built the sturdy and durable iron bridge. In honor of Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), a great Chinese revolutionary, the bridge was renamed Zhongshan Bridge in 1942 and has witnessed the vicissitudes along the Yellow River over the past century.

Your final stop for today is Bingling Temple & Buddha Grottes.  The temple is a series of grottoes filled with Buddhist sculpture carved into natural caves and caverns in a canyon along the Yellow River. It lies just north of where the Yellow River empties into the Liujiaxia Reservoir. Administratively, the site is in Yongjing County of Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province, some 100 km (62 mi) southeast of Lanzhou. The Bingling Temple is both stylistically and geographically a midpoint between the monumental Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan and the Buddhist Grottoes of central China, Yungang Grottoes near Datong and Longmen Grottoes near Luoyang. The caves were a work in progress for more than a millennium. Each cave is like a miniature temple filled with Buddhist imagery. These caves culminate at a large natural cavern where wooden walkways precariously wind up the rock face to hidden cliff-side caves and the giant Maitreya Buddha that stands more than 27 meters, or almost 100 feet, tall.

After the tour ends, drive you to your hotel.

DAY 5 Lanzhou-Dunhuang by Flight

After breakfast, our tour guide will take you to Gansu Provincial Museum. Gansu Provincial Museum, located on the banks of the Yellow River, is an integrative local history museum renowned at home and abroad for its long history and abundant and characteristic cultural relics collection. Gansu Provincial Museum has a rich collection of cultural relics, fossils and specimens with distinguished features. It houses a total of 355,364 relics. Its most unique pieces include painted pottery from the Neolithic Age; wood and bamboo documents from the Han Dynasty (206 BC – AD 220); Silk Road documents and treasures of the Han and Tang (AD 618-907) dynasties; and Buddhist artwork.

After lunch, transfer you to Lanzhou airport and you fly to Dunhuang. Upon on your arrival in Dunhuang, our local Dunhuang tour guide will pick you up at the exit of airport with the sign "China Silk Road Tour". Drive to your hotel for checking-in.

DAY 6 Dunhuang

Today, you will have chance to ride a camel from the Echoing-Sand Dune to Lake Crescent, a miracle in the Gobi desert. Lake Crescent is known for its brilliant blue waters and exceptional clarity, caused by a lack of nitrogen in the water which inhibits the growth of algae. You will be able to reach the top from one side of the dunes and slide down the other to see the fantastic view. (Plz prepare your sunglasses to keep out the dust).

After lunch, drive you to visit Yumen Pass, which is strategic pass on the ancient Silk Road. Yumen Pass, also named Jade Gate or Pass of the Jade Gate, is the name of a pass of the Great Wall located west of Dunhuang in today's Gansu Province of China. During the Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), this was a pass through which the Silk Road passed, and was the one road connecting Central Asia and China, the former called the Western Regions. Just to the south was the Yangguan pass, which was strategic pass on the ancient silk road.

Drop you off at your lovely hotel.

DAY 7 Dunhuang-Turpan by Train

After breakfast, the first stop is Mogao Grottos, which are also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, form a system of 492 temples 25 km (16 mi) southeast of the center of Dunhuang, an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu province, China. The caves may also be known as the Dunhuang Caves. The caves contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning a period of 1,000 years. The Mogao Caves are the best known of the Chinese Buddhist grottoes and, along with Longmen Grottoes and Yungang Grottoes, are one of the three famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China.

After lunch, free on your own for a while to walk around and for photograph and then take you to Dunhuang train station for the overnight train to Turpan. You will be greeted by our local guide at the exit with a welcome signage "China Silk Road Tour" and escorted to your hotel accordingly!

DAY 8 Turpan

In the morning, your first stop is Gaochang Ancient City. Gaochang ancient city was built in the first Century BC and later became capital of the Idikut (Gaochang) Uighur Kingdom in the 8th Century.  Gaochang is considered in some sources to have been a "Chinese colony", that is, it was located in a region otherwise occupied at the time by West Eurasian peoples. A busy trading center, it was a stopping point for merchant traders traveling on the Silk Road. It was destroyed in wars during the 14th century, and old palace ruins and inside and outside cities can still be seen today.

Later, move on to Toyuq village, an old, beautiful and timeless village with a friendly Uighur community. Here we visit several local families and have lunch with a local family at their home. This could be the highlight of your tour of the day.

After lunch, visit Bizeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, which used to be an important center for Buddhist worshipers under the Xizhou Huigu government of the Idikut (Gaochang) Kingdom. The Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves is a complex of Buddhist cave grottos dating from the 5th to 14th century between the cities of Turpan and Shanshan (Loulan) at the north-east of the Taklamakan Desert near the ancient ruins of Gaochang in the Mutou Valley, a gorge in the Flaming Mountains, China. They are high on the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains,[1] and most of the surviving caves date from the West Uyghur kingdom around the 10th to 13th centuries.

On the way back to the hotel, stop at the Flaming Mountain, where people claimed to be hottest and driest along the silk road that "flying birds even a thousand miles away dare not to come".  They lie near the northern rim of the Taklamakan Desert and east of the city of Turpan. Their striking gullies and trenches caused by erosion of the red sandstone bedrock give the mountains a flaming appearance at certain times of the day.

At the end, drive you to your hotel.

DAY 9 Turpan-Urumqi by Vehicle

After breakfast, the first destination that you will visit is Karez Well. In Xinjiang, the greatest number of karez wells are in the Turpan Depression , where today there remain over 1100 karez wells and channels having a total length of over 5,000 kilometres (3,100 mi). The local geography makes karez wells practical for agricultural irrigation and other uses.You will know the underground water supply and irrigation system.

After that, enjoy family visit of local Uygur and have lunch with them. You will learn how to make Xinjiang food and visit the vineyard. 

In the afternoon, our guide will take you to visit Emin Minaret (Sugong Pagoda) which is the biggest ancient pagoda existing in Xinjiang and the only Islamic ancient pagoda in the country. Appreciate sunset at Jiaohe Ancient City and have leisure walk at the valley about 40 minutes. 

At the ends, drive you to Urumqi city, around 200 km away from Turpan. 

DAY 10 Urumqi

In the morning, our guide will meet you at your hotel lobby. Drive you to visit Xinjiang Regional Musuem, our guide will show you around the museum, giving historical context and background. One highlight of the collection is the well-preserved tattooed mummies discovered in the desert nearby. Look out for the Beauty of Loulan, buried around 3,800 years ago near the town of Loulan in the Taklamakan Desert and first excavated in 1980. The hot, dry sands preserved her facial features remarkably well in her open coffin: and she is still beautiful today.

Discover Xinjiang cooking, a fascinating fusion of Turkish and Central Asian elements with Chinese techniques and ingredients. Your guide will help you navigate the à la carte menu and recommend dishes to suit your palate.

After lunch, continue your tour to the Hongguang Shan Giant Buddha, which towers over downtown Urumqi at approximately 38.8 meters (128 feet) tall. Grab a few shots before you head to the Red Hill, a traditional Chinese-style pagoda standing on the top of the hill that is the symbol of the City.

The last stop for the tour is Erdaoqiao Grand Bazaar, recapture the magic of the old Silk Road with a stroll through Erdaoqiao Market, once a trading hub for merchandise from all over Central Asia. This makes a great place to shop for traditional Uighur souvenirs, and your guide can help you navigate the stalls.

Drive you back to your hotel.

DAY 11 Urumqi-Kashgar by Flight

In the early morning, you will be transferred to the airport for your flight to Kashgar, it takes around 2 hour for one way. Kashgar, it is an oasis city in Xinjiang, is one of the westernmost cities of China, located near the borders of Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan. It has a history of over 2,000 years and served as a trading post and strategically important city on the Silk Road between China, the Middle East and Europe.

Upon arrival, your local guide will wait you at the exit of the airport with a welcome signage "China Silk Road Tour". And start your tour immediately. 

Firstly, enjoy the famous livestock market, which happens only on every Sunday and people bring their horses, sheep, goats, camels, cows, bulls and other livestocks to the market from all the directions for sale. It provides a great opportunity to take photos of the faces of local people, enjoy the traditional local market culture, test-drive a donkey or a horse or even make its shoes. Like opening a window, today is a real glimpse into a time lost in the annals of the Silk Road’s past and an opportunity not to be missed.

Later, move on to Sunday market main Bazaar which is considered one of the largest market in Central Asia. From fluffy sheepskin hats to rugged camel-hide boots, not to mention beads, buttons and buckets of locals. Everything – including plenty of kitchen sinks – is for sale at this fairytale bazaar. It is the best to chance to practice your bargaining skills.

After lunch, visit the Grand Id Kah Mosque, the largest mosque in China and marvel at the intricate architecture of Kashgar's historic Apak Hoja Tomb, which is also known as Fragrant concubine tomb.

Take a leisure walk in Kashgar Ancient Town. Walking is the best way to see and understand the ancient historical parts,streets, handicraft workshops and many more;enjoy a century-old Kashgar tea house’s atmoshpere for a short break. sitting by the locals and try various medicinal teas such as those containing rose, saffron, honey and many other ingredients.

Finally wrap up our city day tour with a dinner at a local family which offers a great opportunity to deeply understand real local life, culture and traditions of Uighurs. After the dinner, you will be taken back to your hotel, your guide will help you to check in.

DAY 12 Kashgar

Today, we set out along the Sino – Pakistan Karakorum Highway, on the Pamir plateau (the roof of the world) visit Karakul Lake (3600m above sea level). The lake sits at the foot of the notorious, Muztagh Ata (7546m) and Gongur (7719m) mountains. ‘Muztagh Ata’ means Father of the Ice Mountains and is one of the most beautiful and mysterious mountains in the world. You also have a chance to pay a visit for local Kyrgyz family, to know the local lifestyle.

Free on your own for a while and return to Kashgar at a suitable time.

DAY 13 Kashgar-Urumqi by Flight

After breakfast, our guide and driver will take you to Kashgar airport for your flight back to Urumqi. Upon arrival, your guide and driver will meet you at the exit of Urumqi airport with a sign "China Silk Road Tour", and drive to Heavenly lake directly which takes about two hours.

Heavenly lake offers some great hiking routes through the valleys on wooden pathways or up to the mountains as you like.

Your stay at the heavenly lake is your time to go boating, take photos or simply trek around the lake if you like. You can lunch together with a local Kazak family or just pay them a visit! This is certainly the easiest way to understand the life of the Kazak people in such a short time.

Drive you back to Urumqi.

DAY 14 Urumqi Departure

Our driver will pick you up from your hotel lobby at appointed time, dirve you to airport for your flight to next destinastion or back home. Your 14 Days Best China Silk Road Tour comes to end. Have a pleasent trip!

Price Per Person in US Dollars