15 days the ancient silk road

includes: shanghai, urumqi, kashgar, turpan, jiayuguan, dunhuang, xi'an & beijing

d1 arrive in shanghai, meet at airport and transfer to your hotel.

d2 sightseeing today includes the bund, shanghai's famous waterfront promenade, nanjing road, the bustling shopping district, and the jade buddha temple, known for its large buddha carved from a single piece of white jade. take an afternoon flight to urumqi and transfer to your hotel. attend a welcome banquet of local specialties in the evening.

d3 after breakfast, enjoy an excursion to tianchi lake, nestled in the tianshan mountain range. return to urumqi after lunch and take a city tour, which gives you a glimpse of the major sights of this northwestern city. populated by han people and thirteen ethnic minorities, urumqi is quite different from the usual chinese street scene. here you can see nomadic khazakhs, a middle eastern bazaar, a jade-carving center and more.

d4 today's full day excursion takes you to the pasture by the southern mountains where you will visit local herds. take an evening flight to kashgar, a center for trade between china and the outside world for 2000 years. upon arrival check into the hotel.

d5 after breakfast, head directly to the great bazaar, alive with storybook scenes: thousands of merchants haggling for camels, carpets and other native goods; imams on donkeys and veiled women in their black robes. after wandering the great bazaar, you will visit id kah emin mosque, one of the largest in china, and the tomb of the fragrant lady before flying back to urumqi in the evening.

d6 this morning travel overland about 3 hours to turpan, where you will check into the hotel. sightseeing features gaochang, the ancient walled capital of the uighurs which flourished between the 7th and 14th centuries, and the ruins of jiaohe city, where large fragments of actual streets and buildings remain. you'll also visit grapevalley, in lush contrast to the desert surrounding it, and the amazing 2,000 year old karez irrigation tunnels, which brought water from melting snow on the mountains to this parched city. attend a music and dance performance in the evening.

d7 a morning tour includes the flaming mountains, named for their vibrant color, suliman's minaret and a local village before boarding an overnight train to jiayuguan.

d8 arrive jiayuguan and visit the old fortress standing at the westernmost point of the great wall. climb up this historic "last guard house" which guards the pass between two mountain ranges. this famous pass has been the subject of poems and ballads for centuries. overnight in jiayuguan.

d9 after breakfast transfer overland 4 hours to dunhuang, driving through the gobi desert and grasslands en route. you'll see the beautiful landscape along the silk road. overnight in dunhuang.

d10 excursion to the mogao grottoes, the world's richest treasure trove of buddhist manuscripts and art. begun in 386ad and added to over the next 9 centuries, the grottoes total over 45,000 square meters and boast over 2,000 murals and sculptures. continue to the singing sand dunes and enjoy a camel ride into the dunes.

d11 take a morning flight to xi'an, where you will transfer to the hotel. visit the ancient city walls, the belltower and big wild goose pagoda.

d12 today's highlight is a visit to the archaeologicalmuseum, home to more than 6,000 life-size terra-cotta warriors and horses excavated from the tomb of the first emperor of the qin dynasty. after lunch, visit the neolithic village of banpo which contains relics from the earliest known inhabitants of china. in the evening, attend a tang dynasty dinner show.

d13 in the morning visit the grand mosque and the muslim quarter. take an afternoon flight to beijing, then transfer to your hotel.

d14 sightseeing in tiananmen square and the forbidden city, after lunch, visit the summer palace. beijing duck dinner.

d15 visit the temple of heaven, then transfer to airport to see you off.