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Published: October 18th 2012
Forbidden City - Tiananmen Square
This vast square was full of tourists from all over China...and a few Westerners.September is a good time to visit northern China. The blistering 40+ temperatures of Summer have finished, the Winter deep freeze is still many weeks away and it will be March before the desert sandstorms of Spring. The birch and larch forests are putting on their best autumn colours and the nomadic communities are packing up their yurts and herding their livestock from the high grasslands down to the towns.
We began our four week trip through northern and western China in the second week of September. There were six members in our group as well as Hans, our leader. Hans has been leading groups to China regularly for the past ten years and has an intimate knowledge of the country and people.
The main focus of the trip was to follow the Silk Road from Xi'An to Kashgar in the far west. We also spent time on a number of side trips visiting sites of historical, cultural and religious significance as well as some top rated sites of great natural beauty.
The "Silk Road" was a series of interconnecting roads used from about 1500BC to the 15C AD. It gradually developed into a 6 500km network. By
Forbidden City - Inner Courtyard
You didn't need much imagination to visualise the impact this would have had for those first westerners on the Silk Road. the 1stC BC it was the major highway transporting goods, knowledge, art, music and religious ideas between Europe, the Near East, India and China. One of those goods was silk which had been first produced in China around 3000BC.
Our 7 000km trip involved some flights but most of the travelling was by train or in our minibus. We had several local guides who met us at each major destination and spent up to three days with us, sharing their knowledge of local history and customs.
We visited many locations where there were few, if any, westerners. We were often the subject of interest from the many Chinese who themselves were enjoying their holiday break. Hardly a day went by when we weren't asked to pose for an individual or group photo.
This thoroughly enjoyable and much anticipated trip provided us with many insights into the Silk Road...plus much more.
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Helen Smith
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Produce your own book on The Silk Road
Thank you so much for sharing these photos. They were stunning and I loved the Faces of China at the end. Wonderful photography and camera.