Updating our report on a Dog's life in Turkmenistan, it appears that plans to mothball the golden rotating statue of Turkmenistan's late eccentric dictator (pictured above) have been altered. One year after it was toppled as authorities sought to dismantle the leader's overwhelming personality cult, the statue has been placed atop a new, even higher tower.

The new tower, however, is on the outskirts of Ashgabat, not in the centre of the city as was the case previously.

See it for yourself on the 2012 Silk Route Bicycle Expedition.

Spending a year in Shanghai is by no means enough to extensively explore this wonderful city, its neighborhoods, it’s idiosyncrasies.  

The first and most natural place to start for first-time visitors is People's Square (Ren Min Guang Chang), a beautiful square downtown Shanghai surrounded by green and some of the city's nicest architecture. In its very heart, a mandatory stop is Shanghai Museum (Shang Hai Bo Wu Guan), a splendid display of Chinese past and present, lifestyle and art, calligraphy and handicraft, in a nutshell, a full immersion in the country's intimate soul. Despite being in the city center, Shanghai Museum doesn't draw the attention it should, and often its visitors are more Chinese than tourists.  



The natural continuation from People's Square is the Old City and the Yu Garden (Yu Yuan). This can be a bit of a tourist trap, but it's by all means a must-see for first-timers as, especially in the Yu Garden, typical Chinese architecture and gardening style are beautifully displayed. Inside the Old City there are many shops offering anything from souvenirs to traditional clothes to fancy chopsticks, but tourists should be aware that the first price is “for foreigners”, meaning that if you can pay a tea set 100-150 Yuan at a normal shop, there it can cost 800 Yuan. This being said, you can (and are expected to) bargain the price. It's very easy to get to the Old City by taking subway line 10 and getting off at the Yu Yuan stop. Take exit 1 and after a short walk you will see the crowd.  

Who is keen on museums can also take a look at the places symbol of the Communist Revolution by visiting the Site of the First National Congress of the Communist Party of China situated at no. 76 Xingye Road, next to the trendy pedestrian area Xintiandi. Attracting millions of visitors every year, the Site represents a fascinating journey into a lesser known part of the country's modern history, with an impressive reproduction of the first meeting in the living room on the first floor. Admission is free.

To get here, take metro line 1 and get off at South Huangpi Rd (Huang Pi Nan Lu). Station. Take exit 2 and walk along South Huangpi Road up to Xingye Road on your right side.  

Shanghai's multifaceted society makes it for a very intriguing place to explore. Apart from shopping malls and museums, there's another side of the city that doesn't get all the attention it should. It's the spiritual scene of a world that has suddenly entered modernity but that is proud to cling onto its strong beliefs and the philosophy that made it one of the greatest civilizations.  

Also when it comes to temples, visitors will stumble both on proper tourist destinations and in unsung pearls of Chinese culture. Three unmissable sights of this kind are around the city center.  

The first, easy to find, is Jing'an Temple (Jing An Si), in West Nanjing Road (Nanjing Xi Lu). With a history that dates back to almost 800 years ago, this is one of the main worship areas in Shanghai. It consists of three main halls finely decorated with jade Buddhas and his relics, as well as fresh flowers and the constant scent of incense lit up by the never-ending  flow of worshipers. An attentive eye will notice that its traditional architecture is in striking contrast with the high modern-looking buildings and shopping malls that sit just beside. As crowded as Jing'an Temple is the Jade Buddha Temple (Yu Fo Si,) that, as the name suggests, displays two wonderful jade statues of the Buddha. Packed with tourists and worshipers, this temple is a pleasure to visit whether you are a Buddhist or not thanks to its magical atmosphere that makes for an enchanting break from the hassle and bustle of outside modernity.  



A true hidden gem within Shanghai's spirituality is the Confucius Temple (Shang Hai Wen Miao) situated in Wen Miao Road (Wen Miao Lu). Beautiful display of Chinese culture inspired by Confucius' philosophy, the gardening style plentiful of rocks shows the importance nature held in his ideology as well as the influence he had on Chinese civilization. The temple might be a little hard to find as Wen Miao Road is a small alley off the main South Xizang Road (Xi Zang Nan Lu but it's definitely a must. The nearest metro station is Loaximen on line 10.  

Traveling to Shanghai, and China in general, for the first time isn't easy. The main hindrance is the language. Not many Chinese speak a fluent, or any, English, and Mandarin isn't exactly a language Westerners can pick up easily. It's therefore recommended to bring a small glossary with you so that you can point the characters of the essential stuff you may need. For  smartphone users there are some great apps to help you like Jibbigo and Pleco.  

Going to eat is usually quite straightforward, as most restaurants have their English-version menu, but if you are a complete vegetarian you can find some problems since in Chinese cuisine meat is added about everywhere, to the extent that sometimes they don't consider a meat-based dish if it contains only small pieces of pork or chicken. This is why, if you don't want to eat any kind of meat you will need to tell them first, then specify all the ingredients you don't want:
 
- I don’t eat meat: Wo bu chi rou
- I don’t want pork: Wo bu yao zhu rou
- I don’t want beef: Wo bu yao niu rou
- I don’t want chicken: Wo bu yao ji
- I don’t want fish: Wo bu yao yu  

Transport is not a problem, as the wide and well-organized metro lines make it very easy to get around anywhere in the city. It's important to make sure you have an up-to-date subway map in English language instead of the Chinese version, possible to find at the main metro stations. In all stations names are both in Chinese and English. In case you want to take a taxi, they are very cheap and available everywhere, but again, drivers don't speak English, and often they won't understand which road you want to go to, so it's always a good idea to have the destination written in Chinese characters.  

The first period in China is a challenge, but once the ice is broken, the country reveals itself as a wonderful destination to be explored, unearthing its hidden gems and fast-paced evolution. 

More Articles from Angela:

●    Speaking Mandarin - Must Know Expressions - a 6 part series
●    The Jade Buddha Temple in Shanghai
●    Shanghai's Display of Communism

This guest post was written by Angela Corrias. Angela is a freelance journalist. She specializes in travel writing with the aim to combine her passion for travelling with a socially aware writing. She regularly updates her travel website Chasing The Unexpected.


Visit Shanghai on our 2012 Silk Route Bicycle Expedition.

I learned a lot of things on my scouting trip to China.  Here is a random assortment you may find helpful if you are joining us on our Silk Route Bike Tour.  These tips obviously apply to China. I'll share some tips for the other 6 countries we'll be riding through later on.

-Shanghai has two airports.  One is largely domestic, the other largely international (but not exclusively).  Be sure you know which one you fly into because they are 30 km apart.
 
-Most of our hotels in China do not have laundry service.  Local laundries require 24 hours to wash your clothes. 

-Don’t ever stop in middle of a road/bike path, unless you are fond of being run over by an electric scooter.

-Bring a bell or horn.  A really loud one. Also bring mirror and handlebar bag that has a map case.

-Wean yourself off of coffee before coming.  Get used to drinking tea. 



-Carry the name of each hotel we stay in written in Mandarin with you each day. Believe me, at some point this will save your ass.  Especially if you follow the advice at the end of this list.

-Internet in most of the hotels we stay in is cable only, no wifi, so iPad and Mac Air users are out of luck

-If you enter your hotel and the lights don’t work it is because you didn’t insert your key card into the automatic cut off switch at the door.
 
-Hotels charge for dirty towels and sheets.  A lot.  They will check your room thoroughly before you check out. So don't clean your bike with a towel and don't steal anything.



-SIM cards and phones are cheap in Shanghai, you should plan on getting one.

-Every time you take a cab take a picture of the cab’s ID and phone number, just in case you forget something.

-You will have to carry your bags upstairs at most hotels in China so pack accordingly.

-Always carry toilet paper. (this is a good rule for all our tours actually).

-If you don’t like noodles, I hope you like rice.



-Drink bottled water or boiled water.  A lot of the water is not safe to drink.

-Learn to use chopsticks. Long chopsticks were easier for me to use than short ones. Wooden ones were easier to use than plastic or metal. I've heard the reusable plastic chopsticks restaurants use are rarely cleaned well so its best to use the disposable ones or bring your own.

-Buy a filter mask for dust and smog (if you have allergies or asthma take extra precautions)

-No skinny tires.  All tires should be 28mm or wider.  You've been warned.

And Finally: Get lost! It’s fun and China is very safe and fun to explore.  Just get found again before I have to come looking for you!

Well there you go.  I told you they were assorted!  More coherent info about preparing for the Silk Route Bike Tour coming soon, including a food decoder and some awesome language tips. 

Been to China?  Have some tips of your own?  Love to hear them in the comments.

Paul


Images via Wikipedia


 

The rather eccentric leader of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat Niyazov, (who renamed months of the year after himself and members of his family) may have passed away in 2006 but his successor, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, is staying in character by keeping a close eye on the country's dog population.



The statue of Saparmurat Niyazov (pictured above) was designed so that his face turned and followed the sun on its journey across the sky.

Visit this intriguing country on a bicycle by joining the 2012 Silk Route.

Thanks to Paul Davison for sending us this story.

Most people in Samarkand, including emperor Timur could not read these as they were illiterate.

As it turns out quite a lot!

Especially if he was just there, as our guest author Ashok Vaish was.  He recently visited Samarkand with his family and his blog does a wonderful job of outlining some of the history and events that have impacted the city. He also highlights his words with some very nice photos.  Enjoy!

Samarkand

by Ashok Vaish

Samarkand has been at the center of many empires. Here’s a list for the history buff:

The Achaemenids (6th – 4th Century B.C.)
The Greeks with the conquest by Alexander the Great
(4th Cen. B. C. on)
Kushan  - A Greco-Indian Buddhist empire.
(1st – 3rd Century A.D.)
Sassanid – a Persian dynasty. Zoroastrian, Buddhist
(3rd-7th Century)
Arab – briefly part of the Caliphate after muslim conquest in eighth century.
Samanid – a Persian, Shia empire (9th and 10th Century)
Turkic Sunni Muslim rule from the Aral Sea kingdom of Khwarezm (11th -13th Cen.)
Completely destroyed, burned and looted by Genghis Khan (March 1220)
Rebuilt by Timur Lang, a descendant of Genghis
(14th Century)
Timur Lang and his dynasty (14th – 16th Century)
Uzbeks, Bukhara Emirates (16th – 18th Century)
Tsarist Russia and Soviet colonization. (19th & 20th Century)
Independent Uzbekistan (1991 – present)

Timur Lang’s monuments define Samarkand today. They have been restored somewhat from the ravages of time and violent cultures since the 14th century when they regally dominated the Samarkand skyline.

Timur’s Mausoleum



Timur ruled from 1370 – 1405. He saw himself as Genghis Khan’s heir and was a great conqueror in the Mongol tradition: a brutal destroyer, sacker and looter across Asia. But he was also a builder of a beautiful city and a patron of the arts. In 1404 he lost his favorite grandson in a battle and was devastated. Timor, the  murderer of more than a million people, is said to have cried for two days. He built this mausoleum in memory of his grandson. He is buried here too along with his other descendants.

The tombs inside the Mausoleum

There is a famous curse attached to opening Timur’s tomb: A sign is carved on it warning that whoever would dare disturb the tomb would bring unspeakable horror onto his land. The tomb lay unopened for 500 years.  On June 19, 1941 a Russian expeditionist, Mikhail Gerasimov, opened the tomb. Three days later he learned of the Nazi invasion of Russia which resulted in 30 million Russians being killed!
Other things to See in Samarkand:
Registan Square

Registan Square, Samarkand



This was the center of the city of Samarkand, built in desert motifs and consisted of places of worship and public discourse. It was a great bustling place with colleges teaching philosophy, math and astronomy as well as a silk route bazaar with eclectic wares from across Timur’s empire – from India to Persia and beyond.
Bibi Khanum’s Mosque

Timur built this mosque in memory of his wife, Bibi Khanum, in 1399 after he returned from his Indian campaign, where he sacked and looted Delhi, India, because “the sultanate there was too tolerant toward its Hindu subjects”.

He brought back more than 50,000 prisoners and 95 elephants who helped build this mosque with Indian architectural elements. Timur’s great grandson, Babur conquered India in 1526 founding the Moghul dynasty which ruled until 1847.

A huge stone Koran dominates the center of the square.

The whole complex is being restored with Russian assistance, a process that began in Soviet times.

Shah-e-Zinda Tombs



This is a beautiful necropolis not far from the Bibi Khanum mosque, where legend has it that Kusam ibn Abbas, prophet Mohammed’s cousin is buried. He came to Samarkand in the seventh century to preach Islam and was murdered by the Zoroastrians. His tomb was regarded for a long time as a pilgrimage site, equivalent to Mecca for those who could not afford the journey to Arabia.

Samarkand’s Bazaar



A bustling market of delights in Samarkand. Colorful dresses, scarves and headwear distinguish the vendors of fruits, vegetables, almonds and black sweet raisins.

Potatoes, potatoes.. selling New World food on the Old Silk Route

Big Thanks to Ashok for writing this wonderful post and sharing it with us! 

Related Links:

Info about our 12,000 km Silk Route Bike Tour from Shanghai to Istanbul:

http://tourdafrique.com/tours/silkroute/overview

An explanation of Confirmation Bias by one of my favorite blogs, You Are Not So Smart:

http://youarenotsosmart.com/2010/06/23/confirmation-bias/

Link to the original blog post by Venture Capitalist Ashok Vaish:

http://ayecapitalist.com/2011/10/21/samarkand-an-oasis-of-exotic-delights-on-the-old-silk-road/#comments

                           Silk worm cocoons

There are lots of things to get excited about on our Silk Route tour.  Obviously the cycling is a big reason for joining a 4 and a half month bike tour (I hope!), but there are a lot of reasons people choose to travel by bike.  

Reason like experiencing new cultures and learning new languages,  the local people you’ll meet, your fellow riders, the scenic beauty, the exotic foods and of course since this is a Tour d’Afrique Ltd adventure tour you can expect a few challenging surprises along the way. 

Bike tours are always better when you know a bit about the history, culture and language of the places they travel through.  So when I came across this blog post by science fiction writer Gene Lemmp I thought I’d share it with you.  What does a science fiction writer have to say about the history of the Silk Route?  Well a lot actually.  Gene uses history to inspire the plots and characters of his own stories.  And the silk route is rich with stories of human drama and exploit. 

It’s a worthwhile read and should spark your imagination as to what lies ahead for us as we start our own journey on the Silk Route Bicycle Tour starting in May 2012. 

I’ve included a abbreviated version of the full post below, please click though to read it in its entirety.  When I contacted Gene about using his story, he mentioned he will be working on similar stories about the silk route in the future.  I hope that’s true and I hope he shares them with us!  Thanks to Gene for the great words. 

--- Paul McManus, Silk Route 2012 Tour Leader


Designing from Bones – Ancient Silk RouteThe Silk Road consists of many land and sea routes



Trade grew from the need of civilizations to acquire goods and resources not available in their home regions. This trade was often driven by empires, conquerors and religious establishments.

The Chinese held one vital resource, silk, and readily traded it for a wide variety of required goods and treasure over the following 500 years. However, the Chinese silk monopoly ended in the 3rd century when two Christian monks discovered the secret of making silk and spies were sent to steal precious silk worm eggs. Not long after silk began to be produced in the Byzantine Empire and the Silk Route drifted out of use, giving way to Islamic-controlled routes.

Conquerors, Adventurers and Death

A new conqueror, this time Genghis Khan and his Mongol hoard, re-established the Silk Route from the early 1200′s until the mid to late 1300′s. During the interim the Islamic trade routes had held a stranglehold between Europe and Asia but they could not resist the power of the Mongols. Genghis breathed life back into the Silk Road and it thrived.

Two famous travelers moved along the Silk Route during this era. One a much lauded noble traveler and the other a far more insidious and ignoble traveler.

The first was Marco Polo, a Venetian explorer, although he was only 17 when he and his father and uncle, a successful merchant team and headed along the route for China. Marco would end up traveling both the land and sea segments of the Silk Route through China to modern day Burma and back. For 24 years, Marco and his companions adventured through foreign lands before returning loaded with a wealth of treasure and knowledge.

The second famous traveler of the Silk Route during this era was the Black Death (commonly known as the Bubonic plague although this connection is in dispute). Many studies feel that the Black Death moved along this famous trade route from China to Europe most likely carried by merchants or the rats that hitchhiked with every caravan of the era. The Black Death led to the deaths of approximately half of the European population and changed the course of Western history forever.

Cultural Exchanges

While the need for goods spawned the Silk Route it was humans that transported those goods. As such the route served as a primary exchange of culture between the West and the East with Central Asia acting as a centralized stew pot of ideas, art, technology and religion.

The route allowed Christianity to advance as far as China while Buddhism missionaries traveled from India with caravans reaching into China and Central Asia. Caliphates of Arabia introduced Islam along the Silk Route in the 7th century and at one time the three great religions brewed together in the melting pot of Central Asia.

Alongside of religion moved art, paper, architecture, music, sculpting, dance and theater. It is easy to see in some areas of what we now call the Middle East the wide variety of cultural influences that at one time blossomed here.

You can read the Gene’s post in it’s entirely on his blog.
 
Gene Lempp is a science fantasy and science fiction writer with interests in archaeology, history and astronomy.  In his spare moments of lucidity, Gene blogs about the uses of history and archeology in discovering story through his Designing from Bones series, reads every craft book he can find and roams worlds where science becomes magic and power evolves from the human spirit.

The Silk Route 2012 heads to Iran.  This is a country that gets no shortage of press, mostly bad press, and often deservedly.  It’s also a country where if you just happen to go on a road trip without a map the people of the country will guide you wherever you need to go.  You’re in hospitable hands.

My last time in the country was 2008 and it was on very short notice that I had to drive from Turkey to Turkmenistan through Iran.  I was lucky to get a visa in one day, which unlike most countries consulates I was able to get by simply telling the Iranian staff there “I really need it”.  O.K., there was a little bit of pleading on my part as well but they gave me a 5 day transit visa and off I went.

My wife and I drove the big blue TDA Mercedes Sprinter to the border where the ominous photo of the Ayatollah Khomeini stares out from the Iranian side.  The border crossing was a formality except for trying to explain why Mr. Tourdafrique wasn’t with me.  The carnet (the Mercedes “passport”) only states the companies name and not the drivers name, and the Iranians weren’t sure of this at first and demanded to meet the driver Mr. Tourdafrique.   After a bit of explaining all was well and off we went.

Our first destination was the gas station.  Cars line up, never turning off the engine, filling up one after the next, when it was my turn I filled up the 70L tank and amazingly the price was equivalent to about 25cents.

We continued east towards the city of Tabriz, which we’ll be stopping at during our ride through Iran.  It’s a city where you hear the Azeri Turkic language as much as Persian.  The old bazaar in town is a UNESCO World Heritage site.


                       Flickr photo by Shahrokh Dabiri

Regardless of it’s designation it’s an amazing place to wander through and investigate all the myriad sweets available in this country, as well all the saffron imaginable, rugs, hats, shiny shoes, flashy bags and of course the nuclear scientist looking trench coats that most of the women wear.  My wife had already picked up one of these in Turkey to wear while in Iran, the funny thing was hers’ was orange so the Iranian women gave some smirks; orange passed muster with the morality police but the fashion police weren’t so sure.

On the topic of the dress code, many women you see are completely covered head to toe, but you see even more who are dressed stylishly.  Their headscarves tied loosely much as Hollywood starlets like Audrey Hepburn would wear, bangs showing in the front with sleek sunglasses creating a discreet look.  Jeans under their trench coats and bright red converse shoes to top it off.   Of course cycling as a woman is a whole other story, but it’s more than possible; here’s a great blog from some female cyclists that traveled in Iran recently.

Our journey towards Turkmenistan continued from Tabriz and it was not too difficult for us to find the main road heading towards Tehran.  This would be a good time to mention that indeed, we had no map of Iran with us.  In our haste to depart we had no time to locate a map and so off we went regardless. 

The main road to Tehran was in decent condition, big shoulders and not too busy when not near one of the large cities.  It’s the same road we plan on cycling during the Silk Route and the wide-open desert will provide no shortage of camping options.  

Our plan was to drive the ring road around Tehran and then head a bit more east before heading north towards Turkmenistan.  We figured that by keeping the mountains to our left and seeing the sun setting in the rear view mirror we’d be fine for a while.  Oddly enough though the ring road led us into the center of Tehran, which it’s fair to say is a city with a traffic congestion problem. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford would be happy to know there is no “war on cars” in Tehran.

With no idea how to get out of the city in the direction we needed to go we stopped for pizza.  It wasn’t long before someone with a little bit of English heard our dilemma and agreed to guide us out of the city by following him on his scooter.  He weaved between cars and took quick turns this way and that, while we followed him with the large Van.  Without too much pain we reached the Northern edge of the city and began driving into the Alborz Mountains and towering Mt. Damavand.


                   Flickr photo by Ensie & Matthias

Driving over the mountains went smoothly, and as we descended towards the Caspian Sea everything changed from desert colors to the lush green feel of the tropics.  The population increases dramatically along the Caspian, the road skirts along endless villages with agricultural plots fitting in anywhere they can.  Including more rice fields than I’d seen since being in southern China.

Driving late into the night we lost our way and ended up driving on smaller and smaller roads, without the sun it was challenging to even tell if we were heading east.  The land was busy with agricultural workers even at the late hour and the light from our van showed more dust, brought up by all the tractors and workers by the road, than anything else.   I stopped multiple times to ask where I was and to see if they could point me towards the town of Sari where we were trying to get to.  Each time I would stop a throng of people… throng being defined as more than 20… would come to me and point in all different directions, try to give us food, stare at the Slovakian license plates on the van and generally try to help.  Eventually we found our way to the town, totally exhausted and amazingly found a place to park in the crowded street by a hotel.

The final leg of our transit through Iran was possibly the most interesting.  Driving through Golestan National Park, I can’t say I saw much wildlife, but there were hundreds of Iranians camping there, enjoying family holidays.  Unlike other Middle Eastern countries Iranians love to camp, almost as much as they like to drive fast (but that’s another story)

After making our final turn north towards Turkmenistan at Quchan, the road became rougher and lonelier until we were in the mountains separating Iran from Turkmenistan.  Here in the total darkness we came upon a group of Iranian pilgrims roadside that had lit enormous bonfires and were dancing all together.  After not seeing a road sign for hours and getting lower on fuel we had a tad feeling of uncertainty about our direction.  It was just after this that I used our satellite phone to give my colleague Shanny a call in the Toronto office to see if he could look at a map for me and tell if maybe I’d taken the wrong road.  Luckily we were most likely on the right road and sure enough another hour or so and we were at the Turkmenistan border where we stopped for the night.


                               Flickr photo by kamshots

What I haven’t explained fully in this piece was the hospitality of the local people along the way.  In the 3 days it took us to drive across the country; we never paid for a meal, we were invited as guests to peoples homes for the night every time we stopped (which we had to pass on due to the speed of our transit) we were escorted multiple times to the correct road we needed to be on, one man led me by the hand all over the town of Gorgon trying to find a map which we did not succeed in but his energy and pride in helping me was more than enough. 

To conclude, the best recipe to get a grasp on contemporary Iran is to not focus specifically on news of its’ governments doings, but to enter the country and explore it’s varied lands and warm people.  Of course, I can only suggest a great way to do this is on your bike next summer!

I’ve been fortunate enough to complete both full editions of the Silk Route that we have run, in 2007 and 2008.  There are some amazing stories from both of those trips and lots of adventure to say the least.  What most stands out is the respect for the people who cycled the whole Asian continent, and even more respect for the Silk Road traders of old who would have spent so many years of their lives on this geographically and culturally daunting route.

Of course during any Tour that TDA runs we ponder how we could improve the Tour, whether by finding different campsites in some spots, or using a side road we discover that has less traffic and is more scenic.  For the Silk Route, we wanted to do something bigger than this, and now we have…



First off we’ve changed the timing of the Tour.  Both full editions of the SR (2010 had us running a shortened edition from Istanbul to Samarqand) were run from late-July until mid-November.  This gave us hot weather at the start of the Tour but by the time we got into the last month we had many days of cold and even some snowy days.  There was certainly beauty in this as many participants’ photos from those years would show, but having freezing hands and wearing multiple layers of bike clothes adds to the fatigue.  By switching the Tour to run late-May till late-September we’ve pretty much eliminated any serious cold weather.  Now not to say there still won’t be some challenges in store climate wise, temperatures in parts of western China and then in Turkmenistan and Iran will be toasty!



Second we’ve changed the direction of the Tour from heading west to heading east.  I’d like to say that we discovered the wind always blows westwards so the Tour will only have tailwinds, however…  China is a very large country and we spend about 8 weeks of the Tour cycling across it.  By doing so at the beginning of the Tour we leave the quick cultural and geographical changes of Central Asia, Iran and Turkey for the latter half of the Tour.  Cycling China is fruitful; with historical, gastronomical, and scenic highlights on most days, but we’ve learned that towards the end of a 4 month cycling expedition it is important to have something new always around the bend to keep the mind focused.  Not to mention that Turkey is the most “western” country on the route and has more amenities to soothe our tired legs.



Thirdly, or I could say lastly.  We have changed the route.  We’re starting in Shanghai, not Beijing.  We want this to be a true trans-continental Tour and there is no better way to do this than by dipping your toes in the East China Sea and 4 months later in the fast moving water of the Bosphorus.  We have then altered our section through Central Asia to include the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan.  This is one of the most mountainous roads in the world and truly a hidden gem.  It adds a big physical challenge to the tour but the reward is the beauty of cycling by 7000-meter peaks and the chance to experience the distinct culture of this region.  The final route change is the decision to head through Iran instead of the Caucasus.  There is nothing wrong with cycling in Georgia or Azerbaijan but the chance to cycle through Iran as a group is too great to pass up.  I’ve been lucky enough to visit Iran a couple of times while scouting our route through the country and the people, despite the problematic leadership of the country, are the most hospitable I have ever come across.  This will be one of the most memorable experiences of the new Silk Route.  Not to mention on entering Turkey we ride by Mt. Ararat; which is startlingly beautiful.



So, after all that, my feeling is that this newly designed Silk Route Tour is going to be an experience not to miss out on.  Join the pioneers and ride this new tour the first year it heads out!

It’s important to also comment that the price of the tour is higher than both Tour d’Afrique and Vuelta Sudamericana.  Part of this is obviously that the new Silk Route is our longest tour. Also a good percentage of the accommodation on the Silk Route is in hotels. However the main reason is that the Silk Route is an extremely complex tour to organize and takes a large amount of time to do so.  There is no other commercial cycling tour company offering a tour in Asia such as ours and this is because it’s not an easy thing to pull off.  We have been able to succeed in this because of our hard earned expertise and knack for adversity.  Take notice though that we are offering a 1000€ early payment discount. This is to encourage participants to commit early so we can better gauge the group size we’ll have and plan for the tour accordingly.

Announcing...



Only from the folks at Tour d'Afrique!

Sign up for our longest expedition: the 2012 Silk Route.

Twelve thousand one hundred and sixty kilometers. One hundred and twenty nine days. One hundred and four days on the bike. Twenty five days resting in some of Asia's most fabled cities.

Be part of an exciting new Silk Route!

Check out the revamped route, sections & prices. Then get ready to ride.