Xi'an · Dunhuang · Turpan · Urumqi · Kashgar. Desert dunes, painted cave temples and bazaars at the edge of the map.
The Silk Road is the trip for travelers who have already seen Beijing and Shanghai and want something with more dust, more distance and fewer tour buses. It runs west along the old trade route — from the Terracotta Army and Xi'an's Muslim Quarter, out through the Hexi Corridor, to the oasis cities of the Taklamakan and finally to Kashgar, where China meets Central Asia.
Distances here are real: two domestic flights and a sleeper-train leg. Your guide handles every transfer, and each stop is paced so you have time to sit in a teahouse and watch a genuinely different part of China go by.
Terracotta Army, the Ming city wall, and the Muslim Quarter — the neighbourhood where the Silk Road's traders settled, and where the food still shows it.
The Mogao Grottoes — 492 painted cave temples — with a specialist guide, then Crescent Moon Lake and the Singing Sand Dunes at sunset, when the sand turns copper. Optional: a camel ride along the ridge.
Grape valleys, the ancient karez irrigation tunnels, the ruined city of Jiaohe, and the Flaming Mountains glowing at dusk. Turpan is where the desert was made to bloom, and you can still see how.
A day trip up to Tianchi — a glacial lake under the Bogda peaks — then the Xinjiang Regional Museum, home to the desert-preserved mummies that reshaped what historians know about early Eurasia.
China's westernmost city, and the most Central Asian place in the country. The Sunday livestock market, the old town's alleys, the Id Kah Mosque, and a tea house where men have been playing the same game of chess for a century.
Best time to travel: April–June and September–October. Summer is extremely hot in Turpan; winter closes some mountain roads.
Every included item is itemized in your itinerary before you pay anything. No hidden fees on arrival.
From $599 per person
From $799 per person
From $499 per person
Where China began
Desert dunes and painted caves
Emperors, hutongs and the Great Wall
The future on the Huangpu
Pandas, teahouses and real heat
Email us and a real trip designer in China replies within 24 hours with a revised day-by-day itinerary and a clear price. No deposit, no obligation.
hello@joyotour.comCopy this into your message and fill in what you know. Missing pieces are fine — we'll ask the right questions.