Magical, mystical, overwhelming. However you want to describe it, there is something inherently moving about Gansu, with its sweeping sand dunes, forbidding Gobi plains and snow-capped Qilian Mountains – barriers that continue to cradle some of China’s greatest and remotest treasures.
From October 18-23rd, 2021, Beijing-based Great Wall explorer, historian and conservationist William Lindesay – accompanied by his son, photographer James Lindesay – will lead an exclusive small group tour of the Great Walls and Silk Road history of Northwest China’s Gansu Province. This is your chance to see the province with the man who made history when he set off from Gansu’s Jiayuguan Fortress in 1987 to become the first foreigner to walk the Wall’s entire length. You’ll traverse Gansu’s epic desert terrain to see the Ming Great Wall, the Han Great Wall and the inspiring Mogao Caves as Lindesay presents the story of these 3 great sights from the perspective of their rediscovery by foreign explorers in the early 20th century.
Expect long hikes, Gobi-desert picnics, lashings of noodles and more history, archaeology and stories than you can shake a stick at. If you don’t leave this province in awe of the civilisations that went before us, we’ll eat our (Indiana Jones-style) hats.