2013 China Silk Road Trip Brochure (PDF) from the JCCC web site. This link will probably be removed from the JCCC site at some point in 2013 or 2014.
The Planned Schedule (which isn't how it all really happened.)
- Day1 (Kansas City–Beijing): Departure from Kansas City
- Day2 (Beijing):Arrive in Beijing and rest at a deluxe hotel.
- Day3 (Beijing):Visit Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City,and Asia’s largest Jade Center in the morning,the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon, and enjoy a Peking Roast Duck Banquet in the evening.
- Day4 (Beijing):Visit the Great Wall, the Summer Palace, and the Pearl Exhibition Hall in the morning, and Cloisonné Factory and the Sacred Path of Ming Tombs in the afternoon with dinner and acrobatic performance in the evening.
- Day5 (Beijing–Xi’an): Arrive in Xi’an and visit the Terra Cotta Warriors.
- Day6 (Xi’an): Visit Wild Goose Pagoda and others to be arranged.
- Day7 (Urumqi): Arrive in Urumqi in the morning. Visit the City Museum, which preserves mummies from over 2000 years ago, the Red Hill Park and the Bazaar (arguably the largest outdoor market in the world).
- Day8 (Urumqi): Cruise the legendary Lake of Heaven (6,435 feet above sea level), sightsee in the picturesque surrounding area, and visit a yurt.
- Day9 (Turpan): Arrive in Turpan, a Uighur (wee-gurr) town in a famed oasis. By coach bus, visit the mysterious Gao chang Ruins of a prosperous ancient trading center and military stronghold, the legendary Flaming Mountains and the Baizeklik Thousand Buddha Caves.
- Day10 (Turpan): Visit the famed Grape Valley and Karez with its magnificent underground Irrigation Channels, and leave Turpan for Dunhuang in the evening, traveling by soft-sleeper overnight train.
- Day11 (Dunhuang):Arrive in Dunhuang in the morning, one of the major points of interchange between China and the outside world along the Silk Road. Dunhuang was a stopping-off post for both incoming and outgoing trading caravans, especially during the Han (202 BCE–9 CE) and Tang (618–907 CE) dynasties. Sightsee in the Singing Sand Mountains and Crescent Moon Lake, and enjoy the local singing and dancing show in the evening.
- Day12 (Dunhuang): Visit the Mogao Caves, also known as Grottoes of the Thousand Buddhas. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of the world’s most important sites of ancient Buddhist culture, preserves Buddhist cave-temple architecture, clay sculpture, mural paintings, and manuscripts dating from the 5th to the14th centuries.
- Day13 (Shanghai):Arrive in Shanghai. After breakfast, visit the Shanghai Museum to see ancient Chinese art, furniture and jade, followed bygift-shopping and sightseeing at your leisure.
- Day14 (Shanghai–Kansas City): Departure from Shanghai for home
