The Silk Road
丝绸之路
Xi'an west through the Hexi Corridor to Dunhuang and on into Xinjiang, following the caravan route on a bullet train.
Photo: xiquinhosilva · CC BY 2.0
- Length
- 14 days
- Pace
- Moderate
- Best season
- May–June, September–October
- Budget
- ¥8,000–11,000 per person
The Lanzhou–Xinjiang high-speed line runs the length of the ancient corridor, which means you can now do in two weeks what once took a year and a reasonable chance of dying. The route strings together Buddhist cave art, desert forts, oasis towns and a cultural gradient that shifts from Han to Turkic as you go west. It is the most rewarding second trip to China.
Day by day
→Day by day
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Day 1–3
Xi'an
The eastern terminus. Terracotta Army, city wall, Muslim Quarter, Shaanxi History Museum.
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Day 4
Xi'an → Lanzhou
Train, 3h. Beef noodles for breakfast, the Yellow River waterwheel park, and the Gansu Provincial Museum's Flying Horse.
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Day 5
Bingling Temple
Boat across the reservoir to grottoes reachable no other way. Back to Lanzhou for the night train onward.
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Day 6–7
Zhangye
The Danxia rainbow hills at sunrise and sunset, Binggou canyon, and the 1098 reclining Buddha in town.
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Day 8
Jiayuguan
The Ming fort where the Great Wall ends, the Overhanging Wall, the First Beacon Tower, and the Wei-Jin tomb murals.
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Day 9–11
Dunhuang
Mogao Caves (book 30 days ahead), Mingsha singing sands and Crescent Lake at sunset, and a Gobi day out to Yumen Pass and the yardangs.
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Day 12
Turpan
154 m below sea level. Jiaohe's ruined city, the karez underground channels, Bezeklik caves, and grape trellises everywhere.
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Day 13–14
Urumqi or Kashgar
Either the Heavenly Lake and the regional museum's Tarim mummies, or fly on to Kashgar for the Sunday market and the Karakoram Highway.
Swaps and variations
- Add 3 days for Kashgar and Karakul Lake — it is the best part of the region and needs its own time
- Substitute Labrang Monastery and Zhagana for Zhangye if Tibetan culture interests you more than geology
- Xining and Qinghai Lake slot in neatly between Lanzhou and Zhangye
06On this route
The stops, in detail
Xi'an Old City 西安古城
Cycle the most complete city wall in China, then eat your way through a Muslim quarter that has been here for 1,300 years.
UNESCO
The Terracotta Army 兵马俑
Eight thousand life-size soldiers, every face different, found by farmers digging a well in 1974.
UNESCO
Zhangye Danxia 张掖丹霞
Hills striped in red, orange, yellow and green — twenty-four million years of mineral sediment tilted on its side.
UNESCO
Jiayuguan Fort 嘉峪关
Where the Great Wall ends: a Ming fortress in the desert, between a snow range and the Gobi, that marked the edge of the civilised world.
UNESCO
Mogao Caves & Dunhuang 莫高窟与敦煌
Four hundred and ninety-two painted caves in a desert cliff — a thousand years of Buddhist art, sealed and forgotten for nine centuries.
Kashgar 喀什
Closer to Baghdad than to Beijing: a Uyghur oasis city where the Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan ranges meet.