"Adventures Along the Silk Road" a China Travel Page by karinyeung

Send Photo to a Friend

Gavin, Bi Mei, Aaron and I decided to follow the Silk Road all the way to Kashgar. It was an eye-opening experience. Many adventures along the way... Bi Mei and Aaron started a couple weeks ahead of us. I needed to finish up working at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing. Gav and I flew from Beijing to Lanzhou. We then bused down to Xia He to meet up with Bi Mei and Aaron. From Xia He, we all went back to Lanzhou to catch the train to Jiayuguan. From Jiayuguan we took a little van/bus to Dunhuang. From Dunhuang we took the train to Urumji. As a result of consultations with some of the locals on the train, we decided to take the train to Kashgar and come back to tour Urumji later. After a 33 hour hard seat non-air conditioned train ride to Kasgar, I was ready to die. We fly back from Kashgar...it cost a lot...but it was worth every penny. Using Urumji as our base, we toured around the region and saw Turpan and went up to Tianchi for an overnight trip in a Kazhak yurt. We managed to cram in a LOT of China in two weeks... Gotta do it once. See the motherland. But I think that you've got to be pretty young and resiliant to survive it the way we did... Next time, I think I'll go with flying and five star hotels...