China (Silk Road Tour, 2007) In September 2007 I went to China on a Silk Road Tour with Grand American Travel, along with Mike, my mom, her husband, my brother and his wife.
	Urumqi, a city in the far northwest of China.
	Dunhuang, about 300 miles southeast of Urumqi. It's known primarily for the shifting sand dunes (depicted to the left), and the Mogao Caves, a fantastic set of carved sandstone caves with elaborate paintings, murals, frescoes, bas-relief, statues, and other artwork dating between the 4th and 14th centuries A.D. I also stopped by a silk rug-making factory, where the travelingtiger found some tiger-rug cousins.
	The Great Wall at Jiayuguan, the final outpost and best-preserved section of the Great Wall.
	Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu province in northwestern China, is a rather industrial city, but it hosts the Bingling Si Caves, which contain Buddhist artworks from 400 AD on. Fortunately the caves are relatively remote, so have not been plundered by passing archaeologists or destroyed by the Red Guard during the Cultural Revolution.
	Xining, the capital of Qinghai province, features not only the Kum Bum monastery (one of the major Tibetan Buddhist lamaseries) but also a pretty good museum on Tibetan carpets and thangka (Tibetan Buddhist religious paintings). And, I got to see a yak!
	Xi'an, the former capital of China, features not only the Terra Cotta Warriors of Emperor Qin Shihuang (the man who unified the seven warring kingdoms and created modern China) but also some damn good food.