7 Days Classic Xinjiang Tour

Trip Length

7 Days

Route

Urumqi-Turpan-Kashgar-Urumqi

Attractions

Tianchi-Heavenly Lake, Grand Bazaar, Emin Minaret, Jiaohe Ruin, Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves, Grape Valley, Flaming Mountains, Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar Sunday Bazaar, Karakuri Lake, Muztagata Mountain

Itinerary Day by Day

Day 1: Arrive in Urumqi

Today's highlights:

Airport/train station transfer to hotel

Details:

Arrive in Urumqi Diwopu Airport by air or Urumqi Railway Station by train. Our guide will meet you and transfer you to your hotel. The rest time is free. You can have a good rest in the hotel, or roam the local streets nearby recommended by our guide.

Tips:

The clock time in Urumqi, Xinjiang is the same as Beijing Time, but there is 2-hour difference because of the longitude. You should adjust your rest and dinning time 2 hours later as compared with that in mainland China.

Day 2: Sightseeing in Urumqi

Today's highlights:

Tianchi-Heavenly Lake

Details:

Drive to Tianchi-Heavenly Lake, a marvelous view of mountain lake formed more than million years ago in the 4th glacial epoch. It is famed as the "Jewel in the Crown". The pine trees covering the hillsides and the snow capped mountains in the background make the huge clear water spectacular sight-reminiscent of Switzerland or the Rocky mountains but somehow with more vibrancy and color. Bogda Peak-the highest peak stands to the east of the lake in the east part of Tianshan Mountain which is capped by glacier and snow glistening in the sun, finely contrasted with blue lake water, forming fabulous scenery.

We will also ramble around the Grand Bazaar, the largest Uigur bazaar in Urumqi, where you'll find a bustling market filled with kinds of fruit, clothing, crafts, knives, carpets and more things with local colour.

Day 3: Urumqi-Turpan

Today's highlights:

Emin Minaret, Jiaohe Ruin, Bezeklic Thousand Buddha Caves, Grape Valley

Details:

Transfer to Turpan, the place where known as a land of grapes. Tour to Emin Minaret built in 1778, 37m high, a 72-step spiral stairway inside the minaret leads to its top where you may have a panoramic view of Turpan. Jiaohe Ruin, an ancient ruined city is preserved pretty well due to its high location and scanty rainfall. Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves one of the largest Buddhist 'grotto' and Grape Valley, a narrow valley, only eight kilometers long and half kilometer wide is famous for its production of peaches, apricots, apples, pomegranates, watermelons and musk melons.

Day 4: Turpan-Urumqi

Today's highlights:

Gaochang Ruin, Astana Graves, Flaming Mountains

Details:

Visit the ancient city of Gaochang Ruin, the Uygur city-state around the 9th century to the 13th, which was founded a few hundred years earlier than that, and gradually became known as a trading post on the Silk Road. Astana Graves, where the dead of Gaochang were buried. The ancient tombs are clearly zoned according to families and castes with natural stones.

Pass through the Flaming Mountains named of the red clay mountains reflect the heat and glow of the desert in the evenings and seem to burn. It is an intensely hot part of the desert without a single blade of grass to be seen for miles. In July, the mountains seem to be on fire in the burning sun and become a purplish-brown colour. In the late afternoon back to Urumqi.

Day 5: Urumqi-Kashgar

Today's highlights:

Abakh Hoja Tomb, Id Kah Mosque, Kashgar Sunday Bazaar

Details:

Fly to Kashgar in the early morning. Visit Abakh Hoja Tomb, a tomb of Uygur woman living Qing Dynasty who was forced to marry the Qianlong Emperor. However, the tomb is actually the tomb of her grandfather and his family including Xiangfei. 

Then to the Id Kah Mosque built in 1442 for Shakesirmirzha, the ruler of Kashgar, it is the largest mosque in China and the religious center of Kashgar. The call to Prayer booming from the mosque can be heard throughout the city center.

The local famous Sunday Bazaar has been operating since ancient times, and the scale has become larger and larger, attracting merchants from all over Xinjiang and neighboring countries such as Pakistan and Kirghizstan.

Tips:

On Sundays, farmers from the suburbs of Kashgar come to the bazaar early in the morning, using various means of transportation, such as bicycles, motorcycles, tractors, trucks and donkey-drawn carts. The highways leading to Kashgar are crowded with these vehicles and pedestrians on Sunday mornings, as well as with flocks of sheep.

Day 6: Sightseeing in Kashgar

Today's highlights:

Karakuri Lake, Muztagata Mountain

Details:

Drive to Karakuri Lake, a very beautiful lake and the Muztagata Mountain, the unusual shape of the mountain covered in snow all year round, it associated with Chinese legend appears to have been divided into two parts, which is especially nice in the summer, when the flowers on the trees bloom.

Day 7: Kashgar-Urumqi

Today's highlights:

Transfer from hotel to airport for the flight back to Urumqi

Details:

Your guide will meet you at your hotel, and you will be transferred to Kashgar Airport to take the flight back to Urumqi to connect next flight back home or next destination.

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