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China Silk Road Expedition
Day-by-Day Itinerary
Monthly 22 Depart Philadelphia
Tuesday
Meet your travel companions with whom you will share
this remarkable journey. Air China CA#986 departs
Philadelphia at 2:20 PM, for the nonstop flight to
Beijing, China. Meals aloft.
23 Arrive BEIJING
Wednesday
Cross the International Date Line enroute. Arrive in
majestic Beijing at 5:05 PM local time, where we’ll be
met and assisted with luggage. Welcome to China!
Transfer to our beautiful hotel.
The Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel is in a historical building
located in the heart of the business center of Beijing
and is just a five minute walk to Tien An Men Square or
the East entrance forbidden city and $2 taxi ride to
Wangfujing Street (nicknamed Manhattan in Beijing). Cui
Ming Zhuang Hotel was first built in the 1930s. In 1946
it was the office of the CPC (Communist Party of China)
Delegation of the Executive Department of Beijing
Military Mediation Section which was responsible for the
cease-fire issues between Committee (Kuomingtang) and
CPC. Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel was designated a protected
site of historical interest of Beijing at the city level
in 1995, and the part where the CPC Delegation once
lived was restored to it’s old looks in 1998. The newly
completed Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel opened at the same time.
It was most recently renovated and reopened in 2007.
A Chinese buffet dinner will be available this evening.
Meals aloft. Sam Su will give a short briefing, hand out
maps and other readings during dinner at the Chinese
buffet in the hotel.
*** Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel
24 BEIJING
Thursday
This will be a day of rest to recover from jet lag and
prepare for our Silk Road expedition. For those who have
not visited Beijing previously, a full day tour of the
Great Wall and Ming Tombs is included, where you will
see the museums displaying the Empress’ and Emperors
jewelry (we will not go into the tombs themselves as
there you will only find crowds of people). Dinner this
evening will be arranged in a local deluxe Chinese
restaurant in the night market, with Peking duck served.
Enjoy a get-acquainted dinner with our excellent tour
manager, Mr. Sam Su. After dinner, we’ll stroll back to
the hotel. (B-L-D)
*** Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel
25 BEIJING
Friday üRüMCHI
The panoramic morning tour will be filled with some of
the highlights of Beijing. First we will explore the
Tien An Men Square, which is the second most famous
sight of China located in the heart of Beijing. The
Memorial Hall of Chairman Mao Zedong dominates the
square, and his enormous portrait hangs above the Gate
of Heavenly Peace. Behind this gate lies the Forbidden
City, where the Chinese emperors ruled their world in
absolute isolation for centuries. This afternoon we will
visit the Summer Palace. Following, the we are off by
B757 for the four-hour nonstop flight to ürümchi
(u-roo-moo-chee), the capital of Xinjiang Uygur
Autonomous Region, the western-most province of China.
Dinner will be served on the plane. (B-L-D)
**** Haide Deluxe Hotel
26 üRüMCHI
Saturday KASHI (Kashgar)
We have most of the day in the capital of the Xinjiang,
China’s largest but sparsely populated province owing to
the majority of the land dominated by the sterile
alkaline soil of the Taklamakan and the Gobi Deserts. It
is an area of contrasts and superlatives. Many minority
groups, distinctly non-Han, populate ürümchi. China,
like the U.S. is a big melting pot of 56 races. The Han
race is the majority, accounting for 92 percent of the
country’s population. The remaining eight percent is
comprised of the 55 different races that inhabit 2/3 of
the territory of this country. The Uygur people make up
a majority of the population in Xinjiang and they are
unique in appearance and costume. Kazakh communities
outside the city live in their traditional gers (yurts).
This morning we’ll visit the Xinjiang Museum to see the
mummies described in the book The Mummies of ürümchi by
Elizabeth Wayland Barber. Later we’ll explore the
famous, exotic local market. In the late afternoon,
we’ll continue by flight to Kashgar (Kashi) and check
into our modest hotel. The Seman Hotel was renovated
again in 2004 to a very comfortable standard and
enlarged from the former Russian Consulate. It was built
in the beginning of the 20th century during the Great
Game, when the Russians and the British colonists
competed for control of Central Asia. Dine in a local
restaurant tonight, and entertain your mouth with
delicious Uygur noodles. Also, be entertained by local
old men as they dance Uygur disco to the most updated
western rap music. (B-L-D)
*** Seman Hotel
27 Sunday Market in KASHGAR
Sunday
Today is one of the most exciting days of the trip
because it is the Uygur Sunday Market in Kashgar. Here
you are in China’s western-most point of the Silk Road,
and the city perhaps farthest from any ocean on earth.
Camel caravans, religious seekers and explorers all
rested in Kashgar between the rigorous crossings of the
Pamir Mountain passes to the southwest and the
Taklamakan Desert to the east. Kashgar is also nestled
on the eastern side of the Tien Shan (Sky Mountain)
Mountain Range, beyond which lies the fabled cities of
Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent, (but that is another
trip). As in the days of Marco Polo, it remains a
bustling crossroad where merchants from far and near
come to trade. In the morning, visit the Abakh Hoja
tomb, which began as a family mausoleum in the
seventeenth century. Now it is an ornate burial spot for
the Muslim aristocracy. After lunch at the Seman Hotel,
we will visit the bustling Sunday market flooded by
local crowds of people, donkeys and sheep. The
handicraft market dazzles the visitor with all types of
exquisite ornaments and Uygur handicrafts. (B-L-D)
*** Seman Hotel
28 KASHGAR
Monday Overnight train
This morning, we visit a Uygur village outside of
Kashgar and board the train after lunch. The train
traverses the north rim of Taklamakan desert so you have
a chance to see this inhospitable land on which Marco
Polo traveled hundreds of years ago. Dinner will be
arranged on the train. Please take a pair of slippers
from the Seman Hotel, you may need them on the train.
Your tour escort will prepare foods, fresh fruits and
bottled mineral water for your train journey. We planned
for two occupants in each apartment with four beds, if
you request a private compartment, there will be an
additional charge if available. Your luggage will be
stored in the luggage storage in your compartment. This
is a new train equipped with air-conditioning, heating,
toilets and washrooms. (B-L-D)
Train Berth
29 TURPAN
Tuesday
Breakfast is served in the train canteen. Your tour
escort will assist the train chef to prepare a breakfast
as Americanized as possible. At 11:30 AM we get off the
train at the Dayanhe station. It is then an hour coach
drive on the Gobi desert to our hotel. Appropriately
named Oasis, it is the best hotel in the town. We will
have the opportunity to refresh ourselves and relax at
the hotel, the most deluxe in the Gobi desert. Turpan
lies in one of the world’s great depressions. The temple
ruins of Gaochang and the ancient walled capital are
highlights, as well as Suliaman’s Minaret, a more recent
addition built in the 1770’s by the Khan of Lakqun. In
the late afternoon, depart for the UNESCO Heritage Site
of Jiaohe, a garrison of the Tang dynasty during the
wars against the Turkics. Not a place that most
government workers would have wanted to be posted, then
or now, this area is a desert wasteland. It’s hard to
imagine anyone fighting over it. (B-L-D)
*** Oasis Hotel
30 TURPAN
Wednesday Overnight train
Enjoy a full day of sightseeing in Turpan. We’ll spend
the morning traveling north of the town to visit the
Gaochang Ruins and the Flaming Mountains. These
mountains rise out of the middle of the Turpan
Depression, which is 150 meters below sea level. When
the sun is baking these slopes in the summer, it has
been reported that temperatures have reached 158oF at
the base of the mountains. Fortunately, we are visiting
in the spring. After lunch at the hotel, we’ll have an
opportunity for rest away from the mid-day sun. Check
out of the hotel this afternoon and leave for a visit to
the Karez. This ancient Uygur irrigation system brings
underground water to the ground surface – very
impressive technology. Then, visit Suliaman’s Minaret
and explore the local town before returning to the hotel
for dinner. At 9:00 PM, we depart for the train station.
Upon arrival at the train station, we are given a
comfortable lounge for VIP guests, where you can rest
for a while before boarding the train at 11:00 PM.
Overnight train. Two passengers in each compartment of
four berths. (B-L-D)
Train Berth
1 DUNHUANG
Thursday
Breakfast will be served in the train canteen. A coach
in Liuyuan meets our train at 10:45 AM. The 1-1/2 hour
drive puts us in Dunhuang by lunchtime. On the way, you
will see the interesting Mirage that can only be seen in
this area. We’ll make a visit to the Whistling Sand
Dunes, Crescent Moon Lake and the folklore museum this
afternoon. At the Sand dunes, we plan hiking. Camel
rides and a ride on a camel-pulled cart are optional.
(B-L-D)
*** Dunhuang Hotel
2 DUNHUANG
Friday
Once an important caravan stop, this 2,000-year-old town
is known for its inspiring Buddhist Cave art, including
the oldest Buddhist shrine in all of China. The
religious- and mythology-inspired carvings were started
by a monk in 366 AD and continued by his disciples for
the 1,000 years that followed. We’ll go by coach this
morning to the Mogao Grottoes, located about 18 miles to
the southeast of town. Around 500 of the original 1,000
survive and are filled with incredible artwork and
treasures. The museum is beautifully renovated to a very
high standard. An English-speaking specialist at the
museum will give us an in-depth introduction. (B-L-D)
*** Dunhuang Hotel
3 DUNHUANG
Saturday JIAYUGUANG
Back on the Silk Road today, we travel by bus about 200
miles arriving at the western-most terminus of the Great
Wall. In the old days, foreign silk merchant caravans
wound their way eastwards bypassing Jiayuguang. It takes
us some four hours today, but once it was a journey
taking up to three weeks. We bypass Yumen town (Yumen
means Jade gate in Chinese); it is the site of China’s
first oil field. Records of fire springs in this area go
back as early as the third century. 200 years later Han
troops inside the walled city of Jiuquan poured burning
oil over the scaling ladders of a besieging Turkic army.
Today, an oil refinery in Yumen has a capacity of
400,000 tons per annum, a pipeline runs about 700 miles
to Lanzhou, capital of Gansu province.
On the way to Jiayuguang, we may encounter wild
antelopes roaming near the road. The Gobi desert scenes
are unique to this area, hill-like hard sand mounds one
after another remind you of the abandoned ruins of the
Great Wall. About 12:30 PM, we check into Jiayuguang
Hotel, a very nice hotel with even Internet access in
the business center ($3 for one hour on-line). This
afternoon, we will visit the magnificent and spectacular
Jiayuguang Fortress. The east gate faces China and the
west gate faces the Mongol and other nomadic tribes who
were different kingdoms at that time (some 600 years
ago). Next, we’ll stop at the Suspended Great Wall,
farther west. Actually here is the very western-most end
of the Great Wall, about 1 mile long meandering all the
way up to the two beacon towers, seemingly hanging on
the hills – hence the name. Though millions have seen
the section close to Beijing, you’ll be one of the few
to visit this remote site. This exciting afternoon will
certainly be one of the highlights of the entire trip.
(B-L-D)
*** Jiayuguang Hotel
4 JIAYUGUANG
Sunday Overnight train
A treat today is not well known to most visitors. The
Weijing Tomb is regarded as an underground art gallery
with exquisite murals painted in the third century. We
walk through a long, deep tunnel down to the Tomb, and
you will be carried away by the wonderful art. The
Museum just opened in March 1999. Visit the Great Wall
Museum in the afternoon to learn more about the
construction and history of the Great Wall and the
civilization rising along with the walls. Afterwards,
we’ll transfer to the train station and board the train
leaving at 5:14 PM for an overnight journey. Relax in a
soft berth with heating. We’ll have a dinner party with
freshly brewed local grape wine! Two passengers in each
compartment of four berths. (B-L-D)
Train Berth
5 LANZHOU
Monday
Arrive at Lanzhou early in the morning for a full day of
sightseeing in this vital caravan stop with its Middle
Eastern flavor. The oasis location linked China with
Central Asia to the north. Lanzhou, the provincial
capital of Gansu, runs along the banks of the Yellow
River for 25 miles. It is huddled in a narrow valley
dominated on either side by bare brown hills. This
unusual geographic setting made the city a defense
between China and the West for over 2,000 years. It was
the first caravan stop after the ancient silk camel
caravan left Xi’an. Marco Polo stayed here for a full
year in the late 13th century. In 1925, the famous
American botanist-explorer, Joseph Rock, visited here
and described Lanzhou as the “dirtiest Chinese capital
I’ve ever seen” but 10 years later, Peter Fleming, the
British journalist and adventurer who visited here,
found the streets of the city to be “romantic”.
Visit the Lanzhou Provincial Museum. We’ll see the
famous Flying Horse of Gansu and other early Chinese
artifacts. The stunning White Pagoda has stood proudly
for over 500 years. (B-L-D)
**** Lanzhou Hotel
6 LANZHOU
Tuesday LINXIA
It takes two hours for us to reach the Liujiaxia Dam,
which was built in 1964 in the up-reach of Yellow River.
From here, we transfer to a motorboat and cruise up
stream to stop at the Binningshi Giant Buddha tucked
away in the deep Yellow River Gorges. You will be
stunned by the bare rock gorge and the grottoes carved
in the 7th century. We have a picnic lunch here before
we take a 30-minute cruise back to the bus. Within an
hour, we arrive at the Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture.
Visit the Mosques of the Chinese Muslims. It is quite
something to see Muslim people living here with
Tibetans. We will see Muslim mosques with minarets in
the Chinese temple style. Linxia is known as little
Mecca in China. Chinese Muslim people (Hui minority)
from all over China come here for pilgrimages. (B-L-D)
** Hehai Hotel
7 LINXIA
Wednesday XIAHE
You will be awakened early by the Muezzin call from the
mosques in this small town. After breakfast, we drive
for two hours to Xiahe Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture,
one of the highlights of our expedition. We check into
the hotel, staying in the exotic tent-style cottages.
The accommodations are minimal, as in Kashgar, but these
are the best accommodations available. You’ll be justly
rewarded! Spend the whole afternoon exploring the
Labrang Monastery, which is one of the six major Tibetan
Geluk (yellow hat sect) monasteries in China (including
Tibet). We’ll have a full day to enjoy this
myth-enshrouded monastery city, reminiscent of those in
Tibet and Mongolia. As you walk through the mysterious
Labrang Monastery, notice its priceless Tibetan
thangkas. (B-L-D)
** Lapuleng Tent Hotel
8 XIAHE
Thursday LANZHOU
After breakfast, we climb up a small hill to have a
bird’s eye view of the Labrang Monastery in the morning
sun, praying with Tibetans walking through the very long
prayer wheel corridor. This scene is so impressive!
We’ll spend another hour in the morning market of the
town and then return to Lanzhou by way of Linxia,
stopping for pictures. See kilns where Muslim people
make their gray and red tiles and red bricks. Go
directly to the train station and board the train. We
will check if there is any late evening deluxe train
available. We may be able to check into the hotel for
just a shower. If impossible, just travel as Marco Polo
did. He may not have had a chance for a shower for
months! This train ride is the last leg of the Silk Road
before the arrival in Xi’an the next morning at 7:30 AM.
Two passengers in each compartment of four berths.
(B-L-D)
Train Berth
9 XI’AN
Friday
We’ll be met, assisted and transferred to the Xi’an
Tanghua Hotel. This is a top class Chinese and Japanese
garden style hotel. Don’t get lost in this lovely
complex! The Big Geese Pagoda is within a five-minute
walk. After a rest and breakfast, we’ll visit the old
City Wall and Muslin Street before lunch. During Marco
Polo’s time, the city was known as Chang’an, and it is
generally accepted as the Eastern terminus of the Silk
Road. Xi’an is one of China’s oldest and most
illustrious cities. It has played a strategic role in
Chinese history for more than 3,000 years and has served
as the capital of 11 dynasties including the Tang. On
the city tour, we’ll see a section of the massive old
City Wall, and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Tang dynasty
pagoda. (B-L-D)
**** Tanghua Garden Hotel
10 XI’AN
Saturday
Today we will visit the site of the famous “Terra Cotta
Warriors”, an archeological site that resulted from an
unexpected find by a farmer digging a well. It uncovered
an army of more than 6,000 life-size statues, each
bearing the features of the soldiers on which they were
modeled. It is as if these men have been guarding their
emperor’s tomb for over 2,000 years! We will drive
through a vast plain dotted with tombs, pagodas and
temples during our travels today to get to the site of
the Qinshi Huangdi Mausoleum housing the Warriors. Time
permitting, we’ll visit the Banpo reconstructed
Neolithic village archeological dig and museum, and then
the Hauqing Hot Springs, which was a favored hangout for
the rich and famous of the Qin, Han, and Tang dynasties.
Tang dynasty music reproduction performance tonight over
dinner in the theater. We have booked VIP tables for our
group. (B-L-D)
**** Tanghua Garden Hotel
11 XI’AN
Sunday SHANGHAI
We’ll spend the whole morning visiting one of the
largest museums of Xi’an. This museum is like a palace
that is newly built. Say good-bye to the Silk Road and
fly to Shanghai, one of China’s most dynamic cities.
You’ll be awed with the number of cranes at work linking
new with the old. The deluxe Jin An Hotel was built in
the 1930’s as a deluxe casino hotel by the Spanish and
renovated to a charming deluxe hotel today. We will have
a room tour as each room is unique with exquisite wood
furniture in Spanish style. (B-L-D)
**** Jin An Hotel
12 SHANGHAI
Monday
Today we’ll take in some of Shanghai’s most famous
sites: the Jade Buddha Temple, famous for it’s two rare
statues of Buddha (each carved out of a single piece of
Burmese white jade). Continue our tour of this very
interesting city with a stroll on the “Bund”, Shanghai’s
famous waterfront park across the Suzhou Creek Bridge
from the Russian Embassy, and at the beginning of
Nanjing Road (shopping). Here you can take in the
activities on the Huangpu River. There is the second
tallest radio and TV tower in the world. If you have
seen Merrill Lynch’s TV commercials advertising their
Asian Investment packages, you will recognize the
downtown waterfront area of Shanghai’s old European
architecture as seen from the Pudong area across the
harbor. Yuyuan Gardens is also included this afternoon.
(B-L-D)
**** Jin An Hotel
13 SHANGHAI
Tuesday Philadelphia
Today we’ll have a late, leisurely start in order to
complete our packing and shopping. If time permits,
we’ll visit the Shanghai Peoples Square, located between
the Municipal Government building and the Shanghai
Museum of Fine Arts. Bid a fond farewell to China as we
transfer to the airport for our flight back to San
Francisco. Air China CA# 985 departs at 12:05 PM local
time, and arrives Philadelphia around noon on May
15 (the same day). Welcome home! (B-L-Meals aloft)
Note: Flight schedules always subject to change.
2009 quotation in USD
over 16 pax: 2491 USD (16th FOC available)
10-15 pax:2531 USD
6-9 pax: 2600 USD
2-5 pax: 2783 USD
National Guide: 1100 USD
single room supliment:580 USD
tip for guides(total for the whole trip)400 USD/group
for the whole trip
driver: 200USD/group for the whole trip
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