Dear Holly,
Thank you for your mail. First of all, I would like to congratulate you with the smooth organization of the tour, everything went smoothly according to planning. I can imagine this is not an easy task to organize from Guilin, considering the distance and complexity of the trip we made. I also appreciate your flexibility in putting together the program entirely according to our desires.
For the different parts of the trip:
- Xian: we had a good balance between the scheduled sights and free time to spend. The location of the hotel was good, so it was possible to go to the center by ourselves. One remark, we were transferred to the train station at 6am for a train leaving at 8am. The station was less than 15 minutes away from the hotel. We should have had 45 minutes more to take breakfast (which was served from 6:00am on) rather than having to take a package from the hotel. I understand you do not want to take any risk of missing the train, but 2 hours seems to be a bit too much…
- Tianshui to Lanzhou: our guide managed very well to reschedule the visits a bit, putting all visits in Labrang and Bingling Si in the same day. This way we had no negative impact from the traffic accidents we saw on the way, which blocked to road for some time. Lanzhou is a very difficult city to drive into. Maybe a hotel in another city would have been better? We spent a nice morning in Lanzhou visiting the hillside pagoda, but unfortunately the museum was closed so we ended up in the railway station again 2 hours before departure… In Xiahe, the grasslands were not very interesting (probably due to the season). Maybe there would have been more interest to visit another monastery or temple in Xiahe or in the neighborhood.
- Jiayuguan – Dunhuang: nice schedule, the addition of the Yulin grottoes was a very good idea from your part, even if we had to wait for over one hour before they opened (and it was very cold). After the visit to the Mogao caves, we left to the railway station quite early, again having to wait for over 2 hours in the station before the train left. Given the site of the railway, a flight to Turpan could have been a better alternative maybe?
- Turpan-Urumqi: this was the only part where the guide service was disappointing. The general attitude of the guide was one of obvious disinterest for his guests, as he was spending more time looking at his cellphone than looking at us. We only started visiting in the afternoon of the first day in Turpan and then had very little time, especially at the Gaochang site. The attitude of the local staff with the electric carts was quite impolite. We would strongly have preferred to go around by bicycle to explore this nice site. We especially enjoyed the marvelous landscape around Bezeklik and the flaming mountains. Maybe a more extended programme around Turpan would have been better. The hotel in Urumqi gave the real “end of China” experience on the silk road, as did the Grand bazaar, we really felt like being in central asia.
- Yinchuan: our guide there was really very good, caring and very attentive to his clients. We really appreciated the rock carvings and Western Xia tombs site, they are really worth while. The 108 pagodas were nice, but the long trip to Shapotou was not so interesting. As we had already seen the sand desert scene in Dunhuang, this was not worth the long journey. Maybe a site closer to Yinchuan (like the Ming great wall) would have been a better suggestion.
Overall, it was a very good trip and we really had a comprehensive Silk Road experience. As it was a great journey, it is clear that some travel efforts are inevitable in such trip. I will certainly recommend your services to other people and contact you again if I plan another holiday in China.
Best regards,
Steven
