Tracing the Source of Silk from Kashgar to Xi’an (10–20 April 2009)

From 11–15 July 2009, six intrepid travellers went well off the beaten path to join an expedition organised by Asian Geographic PASSPORT, Scuba Diver AustralAsia, Atrium Eco-Travel, and SinoScuba to dive China’s Great Wall.

The Persian Empire has left reminders of its greatness all over the beautiful country of Iran. Sitting astride the land routes of the Silk Road, the Persians’ control of this trade was a large part of the glory of its empire. This is still seen in evocative cities like Yazd and Esfahan, but especially so in Persepolis, its first great capital.

For centuries, Tibet was one of the most isolated parts of the world, a high plateau averaging 4,000 m above sea level, bound by the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Kunlun ranges. Crossing the high passes to the plateau was a high-risk affair until the first roads were built, but until the advent of scheduled commercial flights from Chengdu in the 1970s, it took a bone-jarring 40-hour ride in decrepit buses to get from Qinghai province – formerly the Tibetan province of Amdo – to Lhasa. All that changed with the Qinghai-Tibet or Qingzang railway.