Silk Road Tour: Lanzhou – Xiahe – Xining – Zhangye – Jiayuguan – Dunhuang & Mogao Caves
Hello Jacques,
Thank you for checking in with us.
We returned safely and thoroughly enjoyed our intense but exciting trip.
Some feedback:
– the only day we didn’t really enjoy was the first, with the visit to Binglingsi. A lot of transport (car, rather uncomfortable boat) for a brisk visit in 1 hour 30, in a site where many statues were not visible to the public… and lunch at 4:00 p.m. Given the intense pace of the trip (our children had trouble with some early morning departures…), there was surely a way to avoid this visit and smooth out the remaining program over time.
– Our three guides were excellent, with a special mention for Cathleen. Dhondup was very interesting because of his Tibetan culture, but our children had a lot of trouble understanding his English accent. So we had a young person for the day in Zhangye, who was also friendly and helpful, because Cathleen didn’t arrive until the evening.
– the drivers were good, the second one often driving too loudly (horn used intensely) and quite “aggressive”, not always very comfortable. Small note on the latter: he did not park in paid parking lots, and made us walk a little, I suppose so much savings made for his benefit or that of his local company… but that did not force us to make long journeys on foot.
– the hotels were generally good, with special mention obviously to the Silk Road in Dunhuang, and reservations about those in Lanzhou and Jiyugang.
– the transfer to Xi’an was limited, the time to collect our luggage, re-check in, go through security (cutting the queue), go back up the corridors at a forced march, we just arrived at the boarding time for Wuhan…
But the most important thing is that we are very happy with this trip, to have discovered magnificent sites, and to have lots of memories in mind!
Thank you again for your valuable support, and see you soon for a new travel project in China or Asia.
Best regards,
Mr NEANT