Biking and Hiking Expedition in Xinjiang’s Prairies

Prairie Pastoral Biking & Hiking Expedition in West Xinjiang

8 days | 7 nights

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Highlights

Itinerary

Day 1: (Shanghai) - Urumqi

Upon your arrival in Urumqi, the guide will meet you and transfer to your hotel and check in. You can visit Xinjiang Grand Bazaar if time permits. It’s the largest bazaar in the world by scale, combining Islamic culture, architecture, ethnic commerce, tourism and entertainment. Enjoy our welcoming dinner, followed by a tour introduction and instruction meeting, at the hotel or somewhere nearby!

Meals included:

Day 2: Urumqi - Sailimu Lake (Sayram Lake)

Bus Ride: Urumqi- Sailimu Lake (540km, approx 6h)
Biking: Sailimu Lake Tour (35km, approx 2h)

In the early morning, we’ll take a long drive to [Sailimu Lake] (Sayram Lake), a mountain lake with the highest elevation of its sort, and the largest highland lake with beautiful scenery in Xinjiang. Upon arrival at the Sailimu Lake in the afternoon, we will cycle by the lake while enjoying the stunning highland lake and grassland view, and get prepared for the next few days.

Meals included: Breakfast , Lunch , Dinner

Day 3: Sailimu Lake - Qingshuihe

Biking: Sailimu Lake Tour- Fruit Valley (60km, approx 5h)
Bus Ride: Fruit Valley-Daxi River Valley (50km, approx 1h)

Today we start cycling from Sailimu Lake to Huamugou in Fruit Valley. It is the natural gateway to Ili region, the famous canyon channel of south Ili River valley. In ancient times, this is the Beixin Road’s throat of the silk road to central Asia and Europe. Then drive to [Daxi River Valley] where all kinds of wild fruits are grown for sight-seeing. Take our bus to the hotel in Qingshuihe town afterwards.

Meals included: Breakfast , Lunch , Dinner

Day 4: Qingshuihe - Yining

Biking: Qingshuihe-Huiyuan Ancient Town-Yining (65km, approx 5.5h)

Today let’s start cycling from Qingshuihe to Yining. We’ll visit [Huiyuan Ancient City]. Huiyuan Ancient City’s attractions include the drum and bell towers, Ili’s general mansion, a Confucius temple, an ancient government office and the former Russian consulate. The introductions of the telegraph, telephone, electric lamp, camera and car have played an important role in the development of Xinjiang’s civilization.

Meals included: Breakfast , Lunch , Dinner

Day 5: Yining

Biking: City Tour (50km, approx 6-7h)

Let’s enjoy our city biking tour today! [Kazanqi Tourist Area] mainly displays the Uygur folk customs of Yili, and strives to retain the original folk houses, folk customs and folk conditions as much as possible. It is an original large-scale cultural tourist attraction integrating rich culture, honest folk conditions and colorful charm. Here, all residential buildings and environmental construction has always maintained the traditional style and pattern of one hundred years ago. [Six-star Street] was built in the mid-1930s, planned and designed by German engineer Vasli according to the Six Policies implemented by Xinjiang government at that time. The block is circular in plane, with six main roads radiating outward from the center, dividing the block into six fan-shaped areas, with schools, shops, mosques and other public buildings in the center and residential areas in the periphery, forming a unique living pattern.

Meals included: Breakfast , Lunch , Dinner

Pricing & Accommodation

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What customers say about us?

We’re sure that our customers’ words talk louder than our own’s. We believe that hearing directly from those who've experienced our private China tours is the best way to understand what we’re doing. It's not just about seeing the sights and the tour itself; it's about the whole process, from planning to execution. We highly value all the feedbacks and make them to encourage us to constantly improve our services.

Jenny and Bevan
Australia

We had an amazing trip, thank you so much for all your hard work in putting together our itinerary. All the guides were wonderful and their knowledge was incredible. They could not do enough for us and were always punctual, polite and fun.The hotels were very well chosen, great locations, rooms were beautiful and food was abundant.

We even had an upgrade on arrival in Bejing which was a lovely way to start our holiday. By the time Peter had finished with us in Bejing, I think I knew all there was to know about the Emperors and Dynasties. What would have helped would have been a “Time Line” brochure, so we could refer to which period was being talked about and where each Emperor fit in as there was so much to remember. Although we had a very full itinerary, I would have liked to see the Silk Road Markets in Bejing, I hear they are very interesting.The terracotta Soldiers in Xien were far more impressive than I had thought they would be. Grace was such a lovely Guide and obviously very proud of her job and what she has to show her guests.While we were in Guilin Amber suggested we take the chair lift to the top of a mountain and view Guilin from there. I am so glad we did, it was amazing.

Bevan came back down on the chairlift and I decided to take the louge with Amber, it was so much fun, even for someone my age (54).As we were a little early for the acrobatic show in Shanghai, Colin very kindly took us to a wonderful shopping precinct close by to the theatre, this was very much appreciated and I believe should be added to the itinerary. Colin also suggested we take the night cruise which we loved, Shangahi is so beautiful at night and what a great way to see it. The “Mag Lev” train to the airport was fantastic, my husband had always wanted to do this and was not disappointed, I think this should be offered as an extra when selling Shanghai.

All our drivers were fantastic. We felt safe at all times even though the traffic in China was very different to what we are used to. The only thing that would
have been nice was to return to a cool vehicle, although this was not always possible I am sure.

The only thing that I was sometimes disappointed with was the choice of lunch venues. We chose your company because it was for small groups or in our case, only two people, and in some places we were in large dining rooms with large groups of tourists. I am sure these places are chosen for their locations and the food which was served which was wonderful.

We had a most wonderful holiday and I will most certainly recommend China Expedition Tours to everyone. I do hope we can visit China again very soon.

Kindest regards
Jenny and Bevan

Date of experience: 19/08/2017-03/09/2017
David and Miriam
United States

We finally have some free time on our last night in China to thank you for so much. It is with a mixture of joy and sadness that we come to the end of our journey to China. We have become more than just business partners putting together an itinerary for a trip; we've become friends.

Our first thank you is for the wonderful dinner we had at your place last week. It was one of the highlights of a trip that had so many. We enjoyed the food, meeting Heather, taking a walk around your neighborhood, and having the opportunity to "catch up" on things.

We also want to thank you for the hard work you put in making the arrangements for us, especially the accommodations for Miriam--the motorized chair (which was a godsend), the walk-in showers in each hotel, easy access to the many sites we saw, including the Great Wall.

All of the guides--David, Richard, Alex and David, and Stacy--were all great. They were all excellent and in a few days we became very comfortable with each one. It was sad to part ways with them. Alex and David said they want to visit us in Florida.

Also, all of the drivers were outstanding, though we'll never get used to how the cars and motorcycle weave in and out of traffic.

Finally: this is not good bye. On occasion we will write to you, not on business, but on a personal note.

Be well, enjoy living in such a wonderful country. Our fondest wish is for our governments and people to learn to live together in peace and friendship.

Yours always,

David and Miriam

Date of experience: 01/09/2024-14/09/2024
Enzo Esposito
Italy

Our guide speak wonderful English, he's very kind, helpful and extremely polite, we have fond memories of him as our guide in Guilin. The Aroma Tea House is very beautiful by the lake,we really enjoy it.Anyway, we had so much fun on this trip!!

Date of experience: 19/04/2018-21/04/2018
Tauras
Britain

Hi Alex,

Sorry for so long salience from my side. Had a lot of work plus business trips ….

Firstly I want to thank you for perfectly organizing things inside our trip in China. Everything was as agreed except one. If you ask my opinion regarding guides the weakest was in Lhasa and strongest were in Shangri-La and Beijing. If you need details – please ask.

In my opinion in all areas of life all people can improve. And there is no end to this process. That way I’m writing to you theses small remarks. But if I have to evaluate the services I have received from your company I can state 10 out of 10!

Once more than you for perfect services!

Tauras

Date of experience: 21/05/2018-18/06/2018
Aisling Judge
England

Hi Alex, The tour that you arranged for us on Oct 11, 2012 was excellent. We enjoyed it very much. Upon arrival at Guilin airport on Oct 10th, you met us and from then on our pleasures continued. Guilin is a very lovely city in my mind but we don't arrange more time there. Soon we went to Kunming and continued our tour with another exellent guide. And the last tour in Beijing, the Forbidden City was very informative. The environment in Beijing restaurants was outstanding, have never seen such beautiful restaurants, so stylishly decorated before! Hotels were very good for the most part as well as their breakfasts. China Expedition Tours was an excellent choice for us, very flexible tours (which helps when travelling with a baby), also very informative and able to answer questions very quickly. We will be using CET again! Sincerely, Aisling Judge England

Date of experience: 11/10/2016-26/10/2016
Sherrie and Gary Blundell
the U.S

Dear Monica,

Thanks for an extremely well organised tour.It was fantastic to have somebody there to meet us at every airport and to have a seat as planned at every airport.

All our guides were very helpful and spoke good English.

Our favourite was Zoe from xi'an . She was very flexible and knowledgeable.

The best hotel was the new world hotel in Xi'an.

The homestay in Guilin was amazing, we couldn't believe the views. Guilin is a beautiful city and our hotel room provided views of the river. Unfortunately the hostess could not speak English and the host was away on business. Amber stayed with us until quite late to ensure we were comfortable. Amber spoke the best English of all our guides.

We saw an incredible acrobatic show in shanghai and would like to thank Tony for changing us to the Circus World show. We had wonderful seats in the middle of the stage. I think this was the best show we saw. The Yangshou river light show was good but 280yuan per person was a little expensive. It would be good to make you customers aware to the optional tours and how much they cost so that they can plan their time and budget appropriately.

The only disappointment was the Yangtse River Cruise. We paid for a room to accommodate 3 people. On arrival we were taken to the room and told that we could squeeze a bed into the room but we should upgrade. I had to agree, we could not fit into the room if we had another bed in there. A double room was not appropriate for a family of three. So we had no alternative to upgrade to an Executive room with plenty of room to accommodate 3people. This room was extremely comfortable but cost 990yuan extra. We would have preferred to have paid for the correct room first.

As we did not have accommodation vouchers we did not know what was booked so had to believe them that the booked room was inadequate. Lunch was not included on the last day of the cruise as indicated on the itinerary. The food and service on the cruise was not 5 star and they were regularly trying to upsell us. Morning Tea and afternoon tea were not included and coffee was extra except at breakfast. On a 5 star ship you would not have to pay for anything except alcoholic drinks.

Our room in Shanghai was too small to fit our luggage and 3 beds. Once again we could have upgraded for 100yuan a night. This is definitely something you should consider in the future. We would prefer to pay a little extra to be comfortable but would prefer to be offered this in advance, not on the day of arrival.

Regards

Sherrie and Gary Blundell

Date of experience: 23/09/2017-08/10/2017