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Silk Road Tours
 This
ancient trade route starts in the old capitals of Luoyang
and X¡¯ian,reaches the Yellow River at Lanzhou,
follows along the "Gansu Corridor" and stretches
along the edge of deserts and mountains. Before the discovery
of the sea route to India, the Silk Road was the most important
connection between the Orient and the West. It experienced
its last great era during the time of Mongols, when the
entire route from China to the Mediterranean was part of
one empire. At that time, Nicolo and Marco Polo traveled
from Kashgar to the Far East along the southern route. The
overland link quickly lost its importance as trade across
the seas developed. Today it has been replaced in China
with the railway line Lanzhou-Hami-Urumqi. The last part,
to Alma-Ata in Kazatchstan was completed in 1992. The trade
route was never known as the Silk Road historically. It
was given the name by a German geographer Ferdinand Freiherr
von Richthofen.
 Zhangye,
the capital of Zhangye province was founded in 121 BC as
a garrison town, has a bell tower in the town centre. It
dates from 1509 , with a bell from the Tang period. The
Wooden Pagoda found here is also dates from the Tang period,
though its the first six floors out of a total of eight
are actually made of brick. It is generally no possible
for travelers to stay in these places as some of them are
restricted military areas.
Jinquan, which is a growing industrial
town, was founded in 111 BC as a garrison town, Between
127 and 102 BC, the Han emperors relocated about 980,000
peasant families as paramilitary peasants including at least
700,000 victims of the flood in Shandong. The charming Springs
Parks at the edge of the town was built as a memorial to
General Huo Qubing who is once said to have been given a
barrel of wine by the Han emperor Wudi as a reward for having
gained a decisive victory over the Xiongnu. About 15 km
south-west of the town is the Buddhist temple site of Wenshushan.
 Dunhuang,
the oasis town lies in an irrigated cotton-producing oasis.
Between cotton fields and threshing areas at the edge of
the town, the White Pagoda Dagoda is reminiscent in its
shape of the White Dagoda in Beijing.
The Mogao Caves which is about
25 km southeast of the town has 492 grottoes. The first
caves are said to have been built by the monk Lezun in 366
and the last ones were carved out at the time of the Mongolian
conquest in 1277. Purely touristic attractions in Dunhuang
are the Lunar Lake and the Singing Sand Mountain.
 Urumqi,
the capital of the Autonomous Region lies 900 metres above
sea level is a huge town. About 75 percent of its population
are Han Chinese and only 10 percent each are Uighur and
Hui people. The development of industry has resulted in
considerable environmental pollution in the recent years.
The Museum of the Autonomous Region is worth a visit. Apart
from significant archaeological finds it also exhibits life-size
models of the houses and tools of the most important nationalities
in the region. It is worth taking an excursion to the Lake
of Heaven which is 100 km away. It lies 1,900 metres high
in the Tianshan mountains at the foot of the 5,445 metres
high Bogdashan where the journey passes some scenic landscape.
 Turfan,
can be reached from Urumqi in a half-day bus journey from
the town. Only a few old buildings have been preserved in
Turfan. The Imin Minaret, built with clay bricks in 1776
and the sparsely furnished mosque next to it are the symbols
of the town. The underground irrigation system or Karez
is worth visiting. In Karez, the melting water from the
mountains is channeled underground to the oasis over long
distances. The local museum shows relics from the Silk Road,
mummies from the Astana Graves, silks from the early period
of transcontinental trade and funerary objects.
Kashgar lies 1,300 metres high
on the bank of Tuman river in the middle of an irrigation
oasis with cotton and agricultural cultivation. The population
of 240,000 is predominantly Uighur. Kashgar only became
Chinese around 200 BC, then again during the Tang period
and finally during the period of the Qing emperors. Kashgar
is the furthest away form the sea of all the big towns and
it is closer to Moscow , Islamabad, Delhi, Kabul and Teheran
than to Beijing.
 The
Id Kah Mosque in the town centre was renovated in 1981 and
it is China¡¯s biggest mosque with a central
dome and two flanking minarets. Behind the gate are open,
tree-lined squares for prayers and 100 metres behind Is
the Great Prayer Hall, open only for Friday prayer.
Taxkorgan about 250 km from Kashgar is
the "last outpost" in China before Paksitan is
the capital of the Autonomous District of the same name
with majority of Tadzhik peoples. According to accounts
by Ptolemy, trader from the East and West used to trade
their goods here without crossing the borders.
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