An Artist's View on China

(click to enlarge)

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Floris's artistic impression of what we will see in China: the television tower in Shanghai, the "Army of Men" in Xi'An, the Fortress of Jiayuguan, the Buddha-grottoes of Dunhuang, the city of Ürümqi and the market town of Kashgar.

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Note Hanna's gnome-like features!

Itinerary China

Our plan is to go through China at a steady pace, halting only at a few places of interest.

From Shanghai, we quickly head west by train to Xian, Jiayuguan, Dunhuang, Ürümqi, Turpan and Kashgar, crossing into Kyrgyzstan at the Irkeshtam Pass. In two to three weeks time, we should have covered nearly 6000 km, or roughly one third of the total distance...

The Plan

The plan is fairly simple: after we finish our work assignment in Shanghai, we go back to Europe following a version of the Silk Route. We will travel overland from the Far East, across Central Asia, the Middle East, the Kaukasus region and Eastern Europe.

These are the countries we intend to visit:

• China
• Kyrgyzstan
• Kazachstan
• Uzbekistan
• Turkmenistan
• Iran
• Armenia
• Georgia

After that, we will cross the Black Sea towards Ukraine, continuing north through Belarus and the Baltic states to reach Helsinki before Christmas.