Silk Road Highlights and China's Gateway Cities

Your private guide will be waiting for you in the airport arrivals area. Your vehicle (non-smoking) and driver will be ready to transfer you directly to your hotel.

Hotel options:
Pentahotel Beijing
Hotel Éclat Beijing

After breakfast, start your China exploration with the biggest square in the world, Tian'anmen Square, and then go into the Forbidden City. Your private guide will avoid the crowds and take you to explore the hidden halls for a better experience.

Have lunch in a local restaurant and continue your tour with a visit to the hutongs. Take a rickshaw ride and sneak into the narrow hutongs, experiencing the true heartbeat of Beijing.

The Forbidden City

Not just an imperial temple, the Temple of Heaven is also used as a public park for local people to do their morning exercises nowadays. In the fitness equipment area, you will find seniors who are as good as Olympic athletes.

After lunch, you will be driven to the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall, which has good scenery and fewer visitors. Taking the cable car up and down will save your energy and give you more time to see the Great Wall.

Mutianyu Great Wall

Suggested accomodation: Deluxe soft sleeper on overnight train

In the morning, wander around the Summer Palace, enjoy the breeze from the lake, and have a look at the imperial theater.

Peking duck is one of the typical foods in Beijing — you will have a Peking duck lunch in our handpicked restaurant before you fly to Xi'an.

Upon your arrival, your Xi'an tour guide will meet you in the arrivals area and escort you to your hotel.

Hotel options:
Grand Noble Hotel Xi'an
Wyndham Grand Xian South

Summer Palace

Start your Silk Road adventure in Xi'an — the eastern end of the Silk Road.

Meet the life-size Terracotta Army and explore the huge site of this underground army. Your guide will explain the history and help you to avoid the crowds.

After lunch, visit a local craftsman in his home — a traditional cave dwelling. Learn how to make a mini terracotta warrior on your own.

When you've returned to the city, you will have an opportunity to stand on the ancient city wall and have a great view of the city. Ride a bike to enjoy the breeze.

The Terracotta Army

Visit one of China's best museums, Shaanxi History Museum, and then proceed to visit one of the most famous symbols of Xi'an, Big Wild Goose Pagoda. This Buddhist pagoda was built during the Tang Dynasty and dates back to 652 AD. If there is one pagoda to visit in China, it is this one.

Enjoy a dumpling feast for lunch, pay a visit to the charming Muslim Quarter, and enjoy various dishes originating from the Tang Dynasty for dinner, ending your time in Xi'an.

Your guide will escort you to the airport for your flight to Dunhuang later on in the day.

Hotel options:
Dunhuang Hotel
The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel

Big Wild Goose Pagoda

Now, in Dunhuang, you are at a point of vital strategic and logistical importance, being on a crossroad of two major trade routes within the Silk Road network.

Your Dunhuang tour starts with a visit to the enchanting Mogao Caves. Follow your guide and unravel the caves' system of 492 temples, forming a treasure trove of Buddhist shrines and artwork.

After lunch at a popular local restaurant, you will get your first glimpse of the dunes at the Singing Sand Mountains and Crescent Moon Spring, which forms a lake between two huge sand dunes. Take the opportunity to ride on a camel, and imagine what it was like to travel in a caravan on the Silk Road.

Mogao Caves

In the morning, you will visit the ruins of the Great Wall of the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). It is the oldest example of this defensive system in China. Check the ruins and you will find it is different from the Great Wall sections that you have seen in Beijing.

After lunch, take the bullet train to Turpan.

Hotel options:
Turpan Friendship Peak Hotel
Shuangcheng Hotel

The Ruins of the Great Wall of Han Dynasty

You will see some of the ancient sights in Turpan: the Emin Minaret, which is the only ancient Islamic minaret left in China, and the Karez Well System, one of the three ‘great ancient projects' in China.

The Karez Wells Folk Garden and Museum explains how the well system makes it possible for the famous orchards and vineyards to exist in these hot and dry desert communities.

Following lunch in an authentic Uyghur restaurant, you will get to see the vineyards for yourself.

Instead of being built from the ground up, the ancient city of Jiaohe was constructed by digging down into the ground. The ruins of the ancient city of Jiaohe, built by the ancient Cheshi people on a river island, provide a good vantage point from which to see the surrounding area.

Jiaohe Ancient City

Your guide and driver will take you from Turpan to Urumqi, where Heavenly Lake awaits you. The view is one of a kind — see the snowy peaks of the Tianshan Mountains reflecting on the dazzlingly blue lake surface. A cruise on Heavenly Lake is one way to appreciate its beauty, and there is also a cable car going up the mountainside for an even better vantage point and some great walking paths.

Hotel options:
Excemon Xinjiang Yilite Hotel
Wanda Vista Hotel

Heavenly Lake

After breakfast, visit Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region Museum. It is based on Uyghur and Russian styles, and houses a collection of over 1,000 pieces of precious relics dating from four to five thousand years ago until modern times.

Enjoy a local meal for lunch, then visit Xinjiang International Grand Bazaar. The Erdaoqiao Market is the largest bazaar in Urumqi. You'll find a bustling market filled with fruit, clothing, crafts, knives, carpets, and almost anything that you can imagine.

This ends your Silk Road adventure and your guide will transfer you to the airport for your flight to Shanghai.

Hotel options:
Sunrise On The Bund
Les Suites Orient Bund Shanghai

Kashgar Market

As one of the gateway cities in China, Shanghai is considered to be the economic center. First, visit the ancient and traditional part of Shanghai – Yu Garden – and then walk along the Bund to see the combination of ancient and modern aspects of the city.

Your guide will lead you into the oldest building on the Bund where you can seek proof of its history.

After lunch, go up to the top of the highest building – Shanghai Tower – and have a bird's-eye view of the modern city.

Shanghai Skylines at Night

Your guide and driver will take you to the airport to catch your next flight, and will make sure that your check-in goes smoothly.