THIS IS NOT THE FULL BROCHURE We invite you to call Sarah or Gwen at 1-800-762-4216 to request the full brochure. The brochure will include Important Traveler Information (and answers to most questions) and a Reservation Form. We can send the brochure through the Postal Service or as a PDF attachment. If you would like to receive a PDF, probably the best way to keep the message from going into a SPAM filter is to send a message to sarahb@serioustraveler.com. If you are already on our mailing list, no need to complete the entire brochure request form.

April 19 - May 10, 2011

22 Days from San Francisco via Air China

Preliminary Day By Day Itinerary

April 19 Depart SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday
Meet your travel companions with whom you will share this remarkable journey. Air China CA# 986 departs San Francisco SFO at 2:50 PM, for the nonstop flight to Beijing, China. Add-ons are available from many U.S. cities. Meals aloft.

April 20 Arrive BEIJING
Wednesday
Cross the International Date Line en route. Meals aloft. Arrive in majestic Beijing at 6:00 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 forbidden city and $2 taxi ride to Wangfujing Street (nicknamed Manhattan in Beijing). Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel was first built in 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 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 reopened and renovated in 2007. A Chinese buffet dinner will be available this evening. 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

April 21 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, we suggest a full day tour of the Great Wall and Ming Tombs or a half-day tour exploring the Summer Palace. Dinner this evening will be arranged in a local deluxe Chinese restaurant in the night market. Enjoy a get-acquainted dinner with our excellent tour manager, Sam Su. After dinner, we’ll stroll back to the hotel.

*** Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel

April 22 BEIJING–ÜRÜMCHI
Friday
The panoramic morning tour will be filled with some of the highlights of Beijing. Tien An Men Square 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 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.

**** Haide Deluxe Hotel

April 23 ÜRÜMCHI–KASHI (Kashgar)
Saturday
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 evening, 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. You may even be entertained by local old men as they dance Uygur disco to the most updated western rap music.

April 24 KASHGAR
Sunday Market
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.

*** Seman Hotel

April 25 KASHGAR
Monday Overnight train to TURPAN
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 compartment with 4 beds. If you request a private compartment, there is 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, and toilets and washrooms in the same car. Two passengers in each compartment of four berths. We’ll spend 21 hours on the train.

Train Berth

April 26 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 noon 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 Gobi desert. We will have the opportunity to refresh ourselves and relax at the hotel. 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.

*** Oasis Hotel

April 27 TURPAN
Wednesday Overnight train to JIAYUGUANG
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 8:00 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. Overnight train. Two passengers will be in each compartment of four berths.

Train Berth

April 28 JIAYUGUANG
Thursday
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. In the old days, foreign silk merchant caravans wound their way eastwards bypassing Jiayuguang. Arrive this morning around 8 AM. 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. 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. 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. We check into Jiayuguang Hotel, a very nice hotel with even Internet access in the business center ($3 for one hour on-line).

*** Jiayuguang Hotel

April 29 DUNHUANG
Friday
Today we take the daytime train to Dunhuang departing at 7:00 AM. Breakfast will be served in the train canteen. 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. We’ll be in Dunhuang by lunchtime. 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.

Once an important caravan stop, this 2,000-year-old town of Dunhuang 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.

*** Dunhuang Hotel

April 30 DUNHUANG
Saturday
Today we make an excursion to Ya Dan landform, the world’s Geologic Garden on the Desert. Yadan means “steep mound” in Uygur and is now widely used by geologists and archeologists to refer to certain geomorphic features in arid regions. Here we’ll see the largest kind of this landform found so far that features the unique and wonderful scenes and landscapes of Gobi-desert. Beautiful Ya Dan fully expresses the power of nature.

*** Dunhuang Hotel

May 1 DUNHUANG
Sunday MOGAO CAVES Overnight train to LANZHOU
We’ll go by coach today to the Mogao Grottoes, located about 18 miles to the southeast of town. Around 500 of the original 1000 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. Afterwards we’ll transfer to the train station and board the train leaving at 9:25 PM for an overnight journey to Lanzhou. Relax in soft berths, two passengers in each compartment of four berths.

Train Berth

May 2 LANZHOU
Monday
We have breakfast on the train. Arrive at Lanzhou around 9 AM 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”. We’ll visit the Lanzhou Provincial Museum to see the famous Flying Horse of Gansu and other early Chinese artifacts.

**** Lanzhou Hotel

May 3 LANZHOU–XIAHE
Tuesday
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 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. It is quite something to see Chinese 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. Hui minority people from all over China come here for pilgrimages. Continue an additional two-hour drive to Xiahe. 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!

** Lapuleng Tent Hotel

May 4 XIAHE–TANGKE
Wednesday (SICHUAN)
Xiahe Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is one of the highlights of our expedition, a myth-enshrouded monastery city, reminiscent of those in Tibet and Mongolia. Spend the morning exploring the Labrang Monastery, which is one of the six major Tibetan Geluk (yellow hat sect) monasteries in China (including Tibet). As you walk through the mysterious Labrang Monastery, notice its priceless Tibetan thangkas. After lunch, drive to Langmusi Monastery to visit the site of the sky burial and then traverse the grassland to arrive at Tangke town.

Tangke Hotel

May 5 TANGKE–HEZUO
Thursday
We have a morning visit to the first bend of Yellow River at Tangke, a great place for photographers. After lunch drive back to Hezuo with many stops on the grassland to visit Tibetan families in their tents.

Hezuo Hotel

May 6 HEZUO-LANZHOU
Friday Overnight train to
XI’AN
On the way back to Lanzhou, we’ll make more stops visiting Muslin mosques in Linxia and other villages for pictures. See kilns where Muslim people make their gray and red tiles and red bricks. Go directly to the train station in Lanzhou 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. Again we have just two passengers in each compartment of four berths.

Train Berth

May 7 XI’AN
Saturday
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, we’ll visit the old City Wall and Muslin Street. 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. We’ll see a section of the massive old City Wall, and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Tang dynasty pagoda. We’ll spend the afternoon visiting one of the largest museums of Xi’an. This museum is like a palace that is newly built.

**** Tanghua Garden Hotel

May 8 XI’AN
Sunday
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.

**** Tanghua Garden Hotel

May 9 XI’AN–SHANGHAI
Monday
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.

Our afternoon tour of this very interesting city includes the art museum and 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. Yu Garden is also included this afternoon and we’ll also have dinner here.

**** Jin An Hotel

May 10 SHANGHAI
Tuesday BEIJING
SAN FRANCISCO
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 11:05 AM local time, connects in Beijing, and arrives San Francisco, SFO, at 12:40 PM (midday) on May 10 (the same day). Welcome home!

Note: Flight schedules always subject to change.

THIS IS NOT THE FULL BROCHURE We invite you to call Sarah or Gwen at 1-800-762-4216 to request the full brochure. The brochure will include Important Traveler Information (and answers to most questions) and a Reservation Form. We can send the brochure through the Postal Service or as a PDF attachment. If you would like to receive a PDF, probably the best way to keep the message from going into a SPAM filter is to send a message to sarahb@serioustraveler.com. If you are already on our mailing list, no need to complete the entire brochure request form.

September 27 - October 18, 2011

22 Days from San Francisco via Air China

Preliminary Day By Day Itinerary

September 27 Depart SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday
Meet your travel companions with whom you will share this remarkable journey. Air China CA# 986 departs San Francisco SFO at 2:50 PM, for the nonstop flight to Beijing, China. Add-ons are available from many U.S. cities. (meals aloft)

September 28 Arrive BEIJING
Wednesday
Cross the International Date Line en route. Meals aloft. Arrive in majestic Beijing at 6:00 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 forbidden city and $2 taxi ride to Wangfujing Street (nicknamed Manhattan in Beijing). Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel was first built in 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 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 reopened and renovated in 2007. A Chinese buffet dinner will be available this evening. Sam Su will give a short briefing, hand out maps and other readings during dinner at the Chinese buffet in the hotel. (D)

*** Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel

September 29 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, we suggest a full day tour of the Great Wall and Ming Tombs or a half-day tour exploring the Summer Palace. Dinner this evening will be arranged in a local deluxe Chinese restaurant in the night market. Enjoy a get-acquainted dinner with our excellent tour manager, Sam Su. After dinner, we’ll stroll back to the hotel. (B-L-D)

*** Cui Ming Zhuang Hotel

September 30 BEIJING–ÜRÜMCHI
Friday
The panoramic morning tour will be filled with some of the highlights of Beijing. Tien An Men Square 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 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

October 1 ÜRÜMCHI–KASHI (Kashgar)
Saturday
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 evening, 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. You may even be entertained by local old men as they dance Uygur disco to the most updated western rap music. (B-L-D)

*** Seman Hotel

October 2 KASHGAR Market
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

October 3 KASHGAR
Monday Overnight train to TURPAN
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 compartment with 4 beds. If you request a private compartment, there is 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, and toilets and washrooms in the same car. Two passengers in each compartment of four berths. We’ll spend 21 hours on the train. (B-L-D)

Train Berth

October 4 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 noon 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 Gobi desert. We will have the opportunity to refresh ourselves and relax at the hotel. 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

October 5 TURPAN
Wednesday Overnight train to JIAYUGUANG
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 fall. 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 8:00 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. Overnight train. Two passengers will be in each compartment of four berths. (B-L-D)

Train Berth

October 6 JIAYUGUANG
Thursday
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. In the old days, foreign silk merchant caravans wound their way eastwards bypassing Jiayuguang. Arrive this morning around 8 AM. 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. 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. 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. We check into Jiayuguang Hotel, a very nice hotel with even Internet access in the business center ($3 for one hour on-line). (B-L-D)

*** Jiayuguang Hotel

October 7 DUNHUANG
Friday
Today we take the daytime train to Dunhuang departing at 7:00 AM. Breakfast will be served in the train canteen. 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. We’ll be in Dunhuang by lunchtime. 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.

Once an important caravan stop, this 2,000-year-old town of Dunhuang 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. (B-L-D)

*** Dunhuang Hotel

October 8 DUNHUANG
Saturday
Today we make an excursion to Ya Dan landform, the world’s Geologic Garden on the Desert. Yadan means “steep mound” in Uygur and is now widely used by geologists and archeologists to refer to certain geomorphic features in arid regions. Here we’ll see the largest kind of this landform found so far that features the unique and wonderful scenes and landscapes of Gobi-desert. Beautiful Ya Dan fully expresses the power of nature. (B-L-D)

*** Dunhuang Hotel

October 9 DUNHUANG
Sunday MOGAO CAVES Overnight train to LANZHOU
We’ll go by coach today to the Mogao Grottoes, located about 18 miles to the southeast of town. Around 500 of the original 1000 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. Afterwards we’ll transfer to the train station and board the train leaving at 9:25 PM for an overnight journey to Lanzhou. Relax in soft berths, two passengers in each compartment of four berths. (B-L-D)

Train Berth

October 10 LANZHOU
Monday
We have breakfast on the train. Arrive at Lanzhou around 9 AM 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”. We’ll visit the Lanzhou Provincial Museum to see the famous Flying Horse of Gansu and other early Chinese artifacts. (B-L-D)

**** Lanzhou Hotel

October 11 LANZHOU–XIAHE
Tuesday
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 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. It is quite something to see Chinese 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. Hui minority people from all over China come here for pilgrimages. Continue an additional two-hour drive to Xiahe. 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! (B-L-D)

** Lapuleng Tent Hotel

October 12 XIAHE–TANGKE
Wednesday (SICHUAN)
Xiahe Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture is one of the highlights of our expedition, a myth-enshrouded monastery city, reminiscent of those in Tibet and Mongolia. Spend the morning exploring the Labrang Monastery, which is one of the six major Tibetan Geluk (yellow hat sect) monasteries in China (including Tibet). As you walk through the mysterious Labrang Monastery, notice its priceless Tibetan thangkas. After lunch, drive to Langmusi Monastery to visit the site of the sky burial and then traverse the grassland to arrive at Tangke town. (B-L-D)

Tangke Hotel

October 13 TANGKE–HEZUO
Thursday
We have a morning visit to the first bend of Yellow River at Tangke, a great place for photographers. After lunch drive back to Hezuo with many stops on the grassland to visit Tibetan families in their tents. (B-L-D)

Hezuo Hotel

October 14 HEZUO-LANZHOU
Friday Overnight train to XI’AN
On the way back to Lanzhou, we’ll make more stops visiting Muslin mosques in Linxia and other villages for pictures. See kilns where Muslim people make their gray and red tiles and red bricks. Go directly to the train station in Lanzhou 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. Again we have just two passengers in each compartment of four berths. (B-L-D)

Train Berth

October 15 XI’AN
Saturday
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, we’ll visit the old City Wall and Muslin Street. 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. We’ll see a section of the massive old City Wall, and the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, a Tang dynasty pagoda. We’ll spend the afternoon visiting one of the largest museums of Xi’an. This museum is like a palace that is newly built. (B-L-D)

**** Tanghua Garden Hotel

October 16 XI’AN
Sunday
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. (B-L-D)

**** Tanghua Garden Hotel

October 17 XI’AN–SHANGHAI
Monday
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.

Our afternoon tour of this very interesting city includes the art museum and 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. Yu Garden is also included this afternoon and we’ll also have dinner here. (B-L-D)

**** Jin An Hotel

October 18 SHANGHAI
Tuesday BEIJING
SAN FRANCISCO
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 11:05 AM local time, connects in Beijing, and arrives San Francisco, SFO, at 12:40 PM (midday) on October 18 (the same day). Welcome home! (B-meals aloft)

Note: Flight schedules always subject to change.