You embark on this extraordinary journey, encompassing the far-flung points of the legendary Silk Road, with this morning's train ride northwest to the city of Guangzhou (Canton), capital of Guangdong province and a major industrial center and port city. Afternoon tour includes the Memorial to the city's most famous native son, Dr Sun Yatsen, revered leader of 1911 revolution , the Buddhist Temple of the Six Banyan Trees and the Chen Clan Academy, a fine example of 19th century architecture built around an ancestor's temple.
This morning you make the five hour flight westward across China to Urumqi (Urumchi), capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, the remote frontier area of sparsely settled and often barren landcapes typical of Chinese Turkestan with its concentration of vigorous, tradition-minded ethnic minorities such as the Uighurs, nomadic Khazakhs and Hui. This is China's Wild West, through which centuries ago the great caravans wended their way -- the caravans are gone, but the people abide amidst the same unchanging wonder and grandeur of snow capped mountain peaks and harsh forbidding deserts. In the Central Asian heartland, Beijing is far.
Full day excursion by motorcoach to Tian Chi or Heaven's Pool, a surpassingly beautiful lake located halfway up Bogda Mountain in the Tianshan range some 30 miles from Urumqi. You will enjoy lunch especially in these pristine surroundings at lakeside by the dazzling sapphire waters whose appearance more than lives up to the lake's poetic name.
Today you visit the Southern Mountain Resort and make a city tour of Urumqi, one of the most distinctive, intriguing, exotic cities, offering local points of interest such as the Xinjiang Museum and park of the Precious Pagoda of the Red Mountain, plus a variety of unusual attractions relating to the colorful and nomadic existence of its native groups: attend the rough-and-tumble horseback riding and sporting competitions, take a camel ride or choose among local rugs, embroidered clothing and headgear and ornamented knives produced by skilled craftsmen. Evening flight to Kashgar.
Flanked by the imposing Pamir mountains and located at a strategic juncture on the edge of the fearsome
Taklamakan ("No Return") Desert where the divided northern and southern routes of the Silk Road joined together again, Kashgar is still an important trading outpost where the weekly bazaar recreates an ancient scene where the locals assemble to buy, sell and trade rugs, jewelry, leather goods, cloth, and -- probably most interesting to observe -- auctioning camels and horses! Besides the bustling bazaar, you also visit the Id Kah Mosque and Tomb of the Fragrant Concubine (also called Apahoja Tomb). Evening flight to Urumqi.
Depart this morning by motorcoach to Turpan, a blooming oasis amidst the surrounding low-lying desert (the Turpan Depression is over 500 feet below sea level) and a city with a fascinating history going back 2 millennia during which, as an important way station on the Silk Road, it was a nexus of the inflow and outflow of Indian, Persian and Chinese cultures. Your tour includes visits to the ruins of the ancient cities of Gaochang and Jiaohe -- their haunting remains lie unto today as a grim reminder of the shattering power of Genghis Khan and his Mongol hordes.
Turpan's tasty kebab-type meaty dishes and especially her famous fruits in themselves make the region "worth a visit," as you will discover this morning as you tour the Grape Valley as well as visiting the Thousand-Buddha Cave of Brizekik and Karez Wells. In the evening you depart by overnight train travelling farther eastwards for Dunhuang, another former caravan stop on the Silk Road -- and, coincidentally, the site of one of China's greatest ancient art treasures .
Arrive Liuyuan in the morning and transfer to motorcoach carrying you out of Xinjiang and into Gansu province to Dunhuang, another oasis town on the Silk Road dating back to before the birth of Christ and known as the "City of the Sands" in reference to its situation in Gansu's northwest desert corridor. In the afternoon you visit the Singing Sands and Crescent Moon Lake.
Morning tour by motorcoach to the nearby Mogao Grottoes, the oldest Buddhist shrines in China, the carving of which began in the 4th century AD by an itinerant monk who beheld a vision of a thousand golden Buddhas, thereby commencing a thousand years of sandstone cave carvings and paintings resulting in 492 extant grottoes of extraordinary variety and beauty representing 8 imperial dynasties, from the Northern & Western Wei to the Yuan -- in sum, a fabulous cultural storehouse fully deserving its belated 1961 designation as a national treasure. Afternoon tour of city, then evening flight to Xian.
Much as the Mogao grottoes were rediscovered by chance in 1900, Xian's most famous legacy also came to light after centuries of oblivion when some farmers were digging for a well in 1974 -- and discovered an estimated total of 8000 terra cotta figures of soldiers, horses and chariots guarding the tomb of emperor Qin Shi Huangdi. Your full day tour also visits the Big and Little Wild Goose Pagodas, delightful Hua Qing royal hot springs (with its tragic tale of the emperor's concubine too beautiful for her own good) and Banpo Neolithic Village of 8000 year old artifacts. Evening entertainment of Tang dynasty dance show with dinner of local specialities.
Morning tour concludes your visit to this historically and artistically endlessly fascinating city -- Xian was the imperial capital during 11 dynasties and at one time reckoned the largest city in the world -- by seeing the Great Mosque, one of the largest and best preserved Muslim edifices in China, and the Ming Dynasty City Wall, constructed in the 14th century in a burst of construction by the emperor Hongwu which also created Xian's Bell Yower and Drum Tower.. Afternoon flight returns you to Hong Kong.
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