Day 1 and 2 Sydney - Guangzhou - Urumqi
Been a year almost to the day since I last boarded for a trip overseas to take some time off work. Have been looking forward to this trip to the Silk Road in China for about 5 months. Boarded CZ326 from Sydney to Guangzhou and what an eventful flight it was. First time I had been on a plane and the plane had to make a detour due to passenger illness. Hopefully the person is fine and has recovered in Brisbane. This delayed the flight for about 3.5 hours. We were stuck on the plane during the whole time.

Arrived in Guangzhou late that evening around 11PM and some of the passengers had missed their connection flights, some had missed their tours as they had left without them. Luckily our tour budgeted sometime and we were still on track but the tour group wanted to have late night supper which finished at 3AM.

Had to take a midday flight from Guangzhou to Urumqi. Arrived at Urumqi, this part of China is known as a trading hub and there are many Arabic speaking countries that do business here and often move their families to China to have a prosperous life. On this plane ride quite a few of them filled up their overhead luggage space with remote control cars.

We landed in Urumqi and it was really time for dinner, and it was the beginning of the experience of the north western food of China. I was fully aware it was not the usual Canton food and a lot of the food was made up of lamb as the favoured red meat source, something I don’t quite like. The pork and beef taste different, the chicken taste different, I’m not sure if this is due to being a picky eater but I didn’t have much of an appetite. The fruit taste different in a positive way than back home which was a positive.

Day 3 Urumqi to Fuyun
So after 48 hours we are finally going to commence our tour but first a quick 1 hour flight out of Urumqi to Fuyun.

We went to Keketuohai National Geopark, here many local farmers still take their animals for walks, whether they be goats, cows and bulls or horses. There is a narrow passage way consisting of two lanes in the Geopark for internal transportation buses. At any random time there can be a stampede (mind you a slow one) of animals walking up or down the passage way. I’m not talking about a group of 20 animals I’m talking maybe 100 cows walking towards the bus. The bus has to give way to the animals which can stall your travels by up to 30mins as my group had experienced.

The park was meant to contain a stone that has only ever been found in this park and has not been extracted anywhere else in the world. Unfortunately this museum was under renovation and not for us to see. Not what I was expecting.. and one could say not a great start to the trip.

Head to Burqin for an evening bite and sleep

Kekesuli Lake, we made a short stop here before going to Keketuohai National Geopark

Day 4 Burqin - Hemu

Wucaitan is meant to be very picturesque though bad luck for our tour group as the day was overcast. IF it is a sunny day the sun casts over the rocks and you get a rainbow like effect showing on the rocks.

I did get pulled up by the local police for flying my Mavic Pro, the guide said I could fly the local law enforcers said no. This basically put an end to me flying the drone as it wasn’t worth losing, and it seemed there was no clear sign to say you could fly or not.

Saw someone offering camel rides on the way from Wucaitan to Hemu Village

After visiting Wucaitan we headed to Hemu Village. Tuwa tribe is present at Hemu village, this is really one of the most naturally beautiful places you can stay on the silk road. This civilisation has tried to minimise the amount of outside modernisation it could. Apart from the home stay cabins and restaurants most of it is still as it would have been 100 years a go. The Kanas lake passes through the village.

We got to stay here over night.

Day 5 Hemu - Jadengyu

Got up early to catch the sunrise at Hemu and we weren't disappointed.

Visiting Xinjian Kanas National Geopark was quite exciting, the most distinct feature of the park was the water, which seemed a pale white with a tinge of green from afar. When I mean afar you can trek up a mountain to reach the Fish Watching Pavilion. It is about an 1100 plus stair climb, and once you reach the top you are rewarded with a spectacular view. It is said that if you observe carefully at the pavilion you may see a monster fish so the tour guide said. No Loch Ness Monster for me to see today.

1100 steps later this impressive view appears

Another view from the FIsh Watching Pavillion

A close up look of the Fish Watching Pavilion on the way down

A look out view in Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Day 6 Jadengyu - Kanas - Urumqi

We have a two day tour in the Kanas National park, today we take a boat ride and stop at some vantage points at the park. We also were entertained by the local music band playing traditional instruments.

Hmm the water does look different down here than from above at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Mountains just as impressive as the water at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Lambs milk on offer but the band were going hard singing folk songs at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Another impressive view from one of the lookouts at Xinjian Kanas National Geopark

Kanas fly back to Urumqi

Day 7 Urumqi - Turpan

Ok expecting a lot of hot weather the first part of the trip was quite cool and no different to the weather I had left behind me in Sydney. It was a cool 23 degrees Celsius the past few days in the Altay region. Moving to Turpan.. well let me say it was hot.. not only hot, scorching hot the floor temperature at the famous Flaming mountain registered 65 degrees under my feet, but the air temp was about 40 degrees.

Flaming Mountain is all about the folklore story of the Monkey King, kind of like the show I grew up watching called Monkey Magic

The Monkey folklore story along the entry of the Flaming Mountain

I think the tour just goes here to see if you can withstand the heat!!

From this point we went to The Grape Valley, “they” say and I am not sure why is the they but this is apparently the best grape available in the world. Tour guide speak. Mind you the grapes grow in oppressive heat and the water comes from snow capped mountains that manages to find its way through the desert and into The Grape Valley, many raisins to try but no wine to buy!

Farmer picking ripe grapes in Grape Valley

Silk on sale at Grape Valley along the Silk Road

Following this we made our way to see the Karez system, water wells along the Silk Road made by the Persians.

Karez system.. yep that's water in a very dark tunnel

Tour group had to make a mad rush to the Jiaohe Ruins. I had no idea what the fuss was about as the tour was all in Mandarin. We made the site before the 8:30pm cut off and we were lucky enough to catch the sunset and what looked like a scene from Star Wars. It looked like Tatooine Desert but no Tusken Raiders.

Day 8 Urumqi to Liuyuan (Dunhuang)

First a bullet train ride to Dunhuang and then a reasonably long bus ride to the Mingsha Sand Dune which also contains the Crescent Moon Lake.

After hopping on camel briefly at the flaming mountain, I manage to score a ride on a camel at the Mingsha Sand Dune. It cost 120RMB which includes a 40 min camel ride and the camel’s minder taking photos on your behalf. He didn’t know how to use the Fuji X-Pro 1 and was an exclusive iPhone or Android user.

After the camel ride I decided to hike up a sand dune which took about 10 minutes. It was a bit of exercise for me but was done lugging my camera around so bit of cardio and weights.

The view was quite nice but the odd thing about it all was you were able to see the new somewhat modern city. It would have been nice to see an endless desert.

Next to the Crescent Moon Lake sits an impressively built pagoda.

The camel better not fall as that is some drop, well over 300 camels can do the trek at the same time

Crescent Moon Lake is obscured by the sand

Climbed up the sand dune to get a better view of the Crescent Moon Lake

Day 9 Dunhuang

Dunhuang Global Geopark was the first stop of the day. Another hot hot place but another site hard to believe created by nature. Rock formations were created by the wind and some of the rocks resembled animals or heads if you looked closely or had a wild imagination. One formation apparently looked like a series of warships if you could stand in the right angle with the wild imagination.

Though I had to appreciate the rocks. This is something that took years to create naturally and is probably something will lose its character if it is some how preserved.

They say it looks like a peacock but wait till you see another angle. Dunhuang Global Geopark

I think it looks more like a pig? Dunhuang Global Geopark

Don't miss your bus. Dunhuang Global Geopark

Still looks like a man.  Dunhuang Global Geopark — Still looks like a man. Dunhuang Global Geopark

After seeing the rocks we bus it to Yumenguan Pass. This is also known as the Jade gate as generally all the caravans heading to the Western Regions were carrying jade had to leave through these gates.

Yes it is the desert but they got digging and made water get here Yumenguan Pass

We headed back to the city of Dunhuang, had a quick meal and headed to the night markets. Saw the Aspara monument with her playing the pipa behind her back.

Dried fruits sold at the night markets. Dunhuang

Wood carvings done on the spot at the night markets. Dunhuang

Day 10 Dunhuang - Jiayuguan

Today was definitely a highlight. Going to the Mogao Caves or Grottoes was a site that was created well over 1500 years ago and it still stands today with many caves in remarkable condition. The mountain that houses the saves is about 5 or 6 stories high. So it is impressive how the buddhist monks dug out the caves and built mini shrines. Basically every shrine had art work from floor to ceiling accompanied by statues of buddha and of others. There is a 34.5m meter tall buddha which was available for viewing and it is quite detailed in structure. In total there are 492 grottoes.

Oh due to the fragile nature of the caves, no photography is allowed in order to preserve them for generations to come.

Then off for a 5.5hr bus ride to Jiayuguan

Day 11 Jiayuguan - Xi'an

This morning everyone had a chance to stretch their legs out, it’s as if I needed to stretch them out, i’ve climbed up a mountain to get the overhead view of the Hemu village, I walked up the 1000 plus to see the Fish Watching Pavilion, I walked up the Dunhuang Sand Dunes and now I needed to stroll around the park? However it was a nice day, sun was out and people were playing Sepak Takraw, a combination of soccer and volleyball. A group of elderly playing their instruments and singing. Finally people trying their hand in writing calligraphy on the stone tiled floor.

Retired people now enjoying their lives. Jiayuguan city garden

Practicing Calligraphy. Jiayuguan city garden

After a stroll around the park we headed to Jiayu Pass, this is the first pass of the Great Wall of China on the West end. It is a very impressive site and the majority of the fort is in original condition.

Jiayu Pass, more than 80% of it in it's original state

Impressive tower sits on top of the fort. Jiayu Pass

Part of the Great Wall of China. Jiayu Pass

Apparently those 3 letters in calligraphy are written by the Emperor himself

Next stop Xi’an, rushed to Jiayuguan Airport for the flight to Xi’an

Day 12 Xi'an

Today is an early start and we are off to the Famen Temple. According to Wiki in the Famen Temple a finger bone of the Sakyamuni Buddha is on display, I could see the glass case and the massive golden buddha but again no photos are allowed in certain temples. As I have been told in this tour, no direct photos of the buddha should be taken when housed under a red roof. If you do this buddha will not consider your prayers.

The newly built Famen Temple housing the Buddha's bone from his finger

Famen's Pagoda which has never been neglected, if it partially knocked down it is restored

Unfortunately today we were hit with rain. Our next stop really required the weather to be clear in order to observe the views of the Qianling Tomb. If the weather didn’t play a part I would have been able to see Nipple Hills. No lie according to Wiki “the tumulus mounds on the southern peaks are called Naitoushan or "Nipple Hills", due to their resemblance to the shape of nipples.”!

Headless statues beside the Qianling Tomb

One of the tombs houses Wu Zetian (aka Empress Wu), an Empress and the only known Empress in China. She apparently was a concubine for Emperor Taizong, then when he died she married his 9th son.

It was soon time for an early night, after dinner we went and viewed the Xi’an night markets, it was more filled with food stalls than souvenir stalls. Though again lamb is on serve.

Day 13 Xi'an - Guangzhou
Today is a bitter sweet day, it is the last day of the tour but yet we get to see the Terracotta Army. Gee was it impressive. There are four halls, some of the halls don’t have any soldiers in display, they are still covered, though hall one is the famous one and there are so many on display. There are some rebuilt but can only be rebuilt by their own original pieces, talking about building a puzzle. The rebuilt ones are on display path the back of the hall. Hall 2 is completely covered. Hall 3 was partially uncovered and you could see some horses. We did not venture in to Hall 4.

Restored Terracotta Army soldiers using only the original parts

After some lunch we headed to Huaqing Pool, this housed all the baths for the Emperor.

She is looking for a bath? Model doing a professional shoot at Huaqing Pool

This basically concludes the Silk Road Tour. A few notes, I took the tour that was offered by Sydney’s Skywings Travel (I didn’t get paid by them to add this). The owners accompanied the tour which was nice so we knew we would not get ripped off. Note they don’t join the owners don’t normally join the tours. The tour guides on the tour do not speak English nor Cantonese. So I basically had to use Wiki to get my information.

The positives
- spectacular sites … did I say spectacular sites?

The negatives
- lots of long bus rides but they are required
- lots of internal flights in annoying little airports, the flying is required otherwise it would be a 20 plus day tour with long sleeps on the bus
- if you like lamb, it would be a positive but I don’t and the food if you eat the veggies is quite OK but the food was getting a bit repetitive but I didn’t get sick or food poisoning
- Early morning starts and late night finishes
- squatter toilets.. need to work those hamstrings, the hotels had the “normal” toilets I was brought up on, but the restaurants and public toilets either had squatters or ditches (I kid you not).

I really enjoyed it and if you have ambitions to do the Silk Road go do it!

Here is a break down of the travels.
p - plane
b - bus
t - bullet train
Sydney (p) -> Guangzhou (p) -> Urumqi (p) -> Fuyun (b) -> Burqin (b) -> Jadengyu (b) -> Hemu (b) -> Jadengyu (b) -> Kanas (p) -> Urumqi (b) -> Tulufanbei (t) -> Liuyuannan (b) -> Jiuquan (b) -> Yumen pass (b) -> Jiayuguan (p) -> Xian (p) -> Guangzhou (b) -> Zhongshan (b) -> Guangzhou (p) -> Sydney

All photos done using my Fuji X-Pro 1. I predominantly used the 23mm f/1.4. I did use the 14mm f/2.8 for a couple of shots with the band playing music, and used the 8mm Samyang f/2.8 for the Terracotta Army in Hall 1, some shots for reach I used the 56mm f/1.2 in Hall 3.