2-Day Private Tour to Turpan from Urumqi: Karez System, JIaohe Ruins and More

Turpan has a history that covers thousands of years and many empires and religions. During this 2 days guided tour,  you can chose 4-6 attractions in Turpan to visit, such as Jiaohe Ancient City, Gaochang Ancient City, Karez Irrigation System, Emin Minaret, Bezklik Thousand Buddha Caves and Flame Mountain. The tour includes tasty local lunch, all entrance fee(4 -6 attractions), an English-speaking guide and transport by private vehicle.

Your English speaking guide and private car will pick you up at 8:00am in your Urumqi hotel’s lobby. Then heading directly to Turpan, it will take about 3 hours. Your professional tour guide will give you an explication of the Silk Road and the related Chinese history and culture on the way. Feel free to discuss with your tour guide on which attractions you are interested, choose 4-6 attractions in Turpan, then your tour guide will put together an itinerary for you.
•  Bezeklik Thousand Buddha Caves. It is a complex of Buddhist cave grottos dating from the 5th to 14th century. They are high on the cliffs of the west Mutou Valley under the Flaming Mountains,  and most of the surviving caves date from the West Uyghur kingdom around the 10th to 13th centuries.
• Emin Minaret (Su Gong Ta), the largest extant old tower in Xinjiang and the only Islamic tower among the hundred famous towers in China.
• Karez irrigation system which is unique to this part of the world. The system is considered as one of the three great projects in China with the other two being the Great Wall and the Grand Canal. Here you can learn how the locals have irrigated a dry climate like Turpan for hundreds of years.
• Ancient City of Jiaohe (Yarkhoto)–the capital of the Anterior Jushi Kingdom. Like a willow leaf, the ancient city of Jiaohe has a history of 2300 years. Jiaohe ancient city was considered as the largest, oldest and best-preserved earthen city in the world. It was listed as the World Heritage by UNESCO on June 22, 2014.
• Flaming Mountains, which are barren, eroded, red sandstone hills. It is the hottest place in China with the highest temperature around 47.8 °C (118 °F) and surface temperature over 70 °C (158 °F) in summer.
• Astana Tombs which served mainly as the cemetery for the descendants of Chinese settlers in Gaochang from the 4th century to the first half of the 8th century. The complex contains over 1,000 tombs. Due to the arid environment many important artifacts have been well preserved at the tombs, including natural mummies.
• Ancient City of Gaochang: Gaochang ancient city was a key point along the Silk Road. The city was built in the first Century BC and later became capital of the Idikut (Gaochang) Uighur Kingdom in the 8th Century.  By the 14th century, the city was damaged and abandoned due to warfare between Mongolian aristocrats and Uigurs.
Please note: Your 2 days tour including the entrance fee to 4-6 attractions in Turpan, two days lunches in the local restaurant, English speaking tour guide and private vehicle, please book your own accommodation in Turpan.  After two days tour you can choose to be dropped off at your hotel in Urumqi or finish in Turpan.