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Time and again, employees of AsiaTravel are asked by clients, friends and family about their favorite places to travel in China.  This is a really hard question. And while many of us may hum and yaw for a few minutes, Tibet comes up as one of the most amazing places to travel in the world. There is something very special about visiting the birthplace of the Dalai Lama, witnessing monks in worship, soaking in the panoramic views of the Himalayas and having your first sip of yak butter tea…

This summer, AsiaTravel is offering three unique offerings for Tibet travel.

Family Adventures in Tibet: On the Roof of the World is a seven-day trip  geared towards family travel. Depending on the ages of your group, AsiaTravel will customized activities appropriate for the travelers. For  young families, participate in a prayer flag making class and moderate biking surrounding Lhasa, while families with older children can spend a morning volunteering at Jatson Chumig, an NGO geared towards educating Tibetan youth and camping outside on the Tibetan plateau. Smores included!

Potala Palace, Lhasa

Tibet’s Mt. Everest: Journey to Base Camp, a a 9 day trip in Tibet, visits Lhasa and Shigatse, the second largest town in Tibet and the seat of the Panchen Lama, but the real highlight of this journey is the visit to Mt. Everest base camp. Used by climbers of the northeast ridge of Mt. Everest, the North Base Camp is located in a sheltered spot directly below the massive north face of Mount Everest.  After visiting base camp, descend to the Nepalese border or, for a more rugged experience, traverse onward to Mt. Kailash for a challenging, 3-day pilgrimage trek.

Mt. Everest

Do you have a high school student passionate about China? If so, get in touch to learn more about AsiaTravel’s 2012 Summer Expedition. Departing from San Francisco (June 30-July 21, July 14th-August 4th), students will travel with experienced AsiaTravel tour leader Devin Corrigan to Beijing, Yunnan in Southwest China and have the opportunity to partake in +30 hours of community service.  In Tibet, the group will undertake a trek they may never top: three nights of hiking and camping through the Tibetan countryside to the pass of Jeshul La, stopping to explore villages and a monastery before reaching Yamdrok Lake, which, at 14,500 feet, kisses the sky above with equally blue water. For application information, please get in touch at education@wildchina.com.

Yumbulakhang in Tsedang

Don’t see a trip that perfectly fits your travel needs? Don’t worry– we have countless ideas to customize the perfect journey for you.

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Before international airfare spike, now is the perfect time to plan your Tibetan summer adventure.  Get in touch with AsiaTravel at info@wildchina.com.

Want to read more about Tibet? Check out AsiaTravel travelers Janet Heininger and Jamie Reuter’s blog on their experiences traveling in Lhasa.

Since 2001, AsiaTravel has been the leader in cultural immersion and adventure expeditions for student travel in China.  This year, AsiaTravel is thrilled to be leading a select group of 2012 AsiaTravel Student Expedition Explorers to Beijing, Yunnan and Tibet to experience elements of community service, physical challenge and cultural immersion. 

On the 26 day journey, students will climb the Great Wall at Jinshanling, an off-the-beaten path portion of the wall and then spend the night of a lifetime barbequing and camping out alongside one of the wonders of the world. Immerse yourself in the rhythm of life in a small mountain village as you work with local villagers in the rugged and gorgeous southwest province of Yunnan. Spend three days trekking in Tibet, in areas infrequently visited by international travelers.  Expect to complete 40 hours of community service.

Trip Highlights:

• Wander across the behemoth Tian’anmen Square, stroll through the sprawling Forbidden City, and marvel at China’s most stunning – and deservedly iconic – sites

• There’s more to China than the famous images we can all conjure. Spend an unforgettable morning at Beijing’s Huiling School for the intellectually disabled, exchanging games, activities, and crafts

• In Old Town Lijiang in Yunnan province, weave between atmospheric cobblestone streets, willow-lined waterways and decorative arched bridges as you explore one of China’s most beautiful cities

• Roll up your sleeves and get to work helping the proprietor of an eco-lodge in Shangri-la. There’s plenty of landscaping and painting to be done!

• Do as the Tibetans do: in the far north of Yunnan, we’ll sample the salty Tibetan tea and cheese, dance with a gleeful Tibetan family, master the basics of the Tibetan language, and receive an introduction to the ancient art of Thangka painting

• Bike a kora around Lhasa, stopping by Jatson Chumig School for a day of service and cultural exchange with the school’s orphans

• Undertake a trek you may never top: three nights of hiking and camping through the Tibetan countryside to the pass of Jeshul La, stopping to explore villages and a monastery before reaching Yamdrok Lake at 14,500 feet, which kisses the sky above with equally blue water

With the assistance of local Beijing, Yunnan and Tibet guides, the trip will be led by Devin Corrigan, a AsiaTravel Manager and experienced tour leader. Devin originally hails from the Boston area and has spent nearly three years living in China.  In addition to his projects in the office, he also leads many of our education trips – a continuation of an interest he developed in college while leading fellow students on hiking and camping excursions near Washington, D.C. In his free time, Devin conducts research work for The New Yorker magazine, devours travel writing, hunts for new sections of the Great Wall to hike, and squeezes in as many trips around Asia as he possibly can. Devin graduated with an honors degree in Chinese language and English literature from Georgetown University.

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For more questions about the 2012 AsiaTravel Student Expedition and to receive an application, please get in touch at info@wildchina.com. Apply now!

Last week, during a talk at the Capital M Literary Festival, Jeff Fuchs said something that got me thinking: “Tibetans own nothing but masses of land, huge herds and a fortune in rocks”. He was showing us some portrait photographs of the Tibetans he met on his journeys while researching and exploring the Tea and Horse Road that connected China with Tibet. Some of them were displaying beautiful collections of jewelry: necklaces, earrings, rings and trinkets made of turquoise, coral and pearls. These materials can’t possible be found naturally in Tibet. That idea resonated in my mind and I remembered reading something along those lines in Chris Buckley’s recently published book “Living Hands – Tibetan Arts and Artisans”.

Chris Buckley explains that Tibetan men and women often have large collections of  jewelry around their necks, treasured for fun, decoration, as a store of wealth or amulets for protection. They can be beads, zi stones, silver ornaments, amber, ivory, gawu (amulet cases) and thogcha (good luck charms). Some of these objects are made in Tibet or Nepal. Others travelled vast distances and are a testament to ancient trading links for which no written records exist. Pearls and coral were traded from the Mediterranean. Cloudy yellow amber came from the Baltic. Ivory arrived from India. Turqoise and agate were brought in from Afghanistan. Glass beads were traded from India, China and from eastern Europe.

The photograph above is courtesy of Chris Buckley. From the top: turquoise, agate, amber, zi beads, bone and a turquoise+silver hair ornament.

If you are interested in reading more about Jeff Fuchs’ Tea Horse Road Journey, and his love and passion for tea and mountains, visit his website. And for information about Jeff Fuchs’ expeditions with AsiaTravel visit here.

For more information about Chris Buckley’s book; or a previous review of the book on our blog.

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Pictures and text from Chelin Miller, AsiaTravel’s expert blogger on the finer things in China.

Last minute bookers of Chinese Treasures, a thirteen day journey throughout China, will save USD 300 if they book before April 2nd!

Lijiang, one of the highlights in Yunnan province

China – where the past, present and future can be experienced all in one. If this is your first and only chance to visit China, then this is the trip. Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai present the classic images of China – imperial palaces stand side by side with skyscrapers. Beautiful Yunnan province in the southwest, known for its ethnic diversity, traditional lifestyles and stunning natural scenery, forms a contrast to the developed parts of China.

Map of Chinese Treasures itinerary

AsiaTravel Founder Mei Zhang handcrafted this itinerary for her closest friends in 2009. We are now making it available for very small groups of 16 discerning travelers for the first time. Travelers will explore the imperial capitals of Beijing and Xi’an, gaining access to an emperor’s childhood home at the Forbidden City, a largely un-restored section of the Great Wall and the famed Terracotta Warriors Museum. We then go off the beaten path, visiting villages and glaciers in the famed Tibetan area of Shangri-La and the UNESCO World Heritage site of Lijiang. Our journey ends in China’s bustling financial center of Shanghai – the “Paris of the East.”

Try your hand at Peking Opera in Beijing?

Some of our favorite trip highlights include having dinner with a Tibetan family in Zhongdian (Shangri-La), getting an insider view into the old hutongs of Beijing and an early morning taichi class.

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Interested in learning more about Chinese Treasures? Get in touch at info@wildchina.com and one of our AsiaTravel travel consultants would love to answer any of your questions.

Have you ever woken up on a plane to discover that your flight has been rerouted mid-air? Or arrived at your destination only to discover every single bag is missing? Everyone has at least one story, that nightmare travel experience where a series of disasters have conspired to wreck a vacation. Sometimes it is a storm, sometimes it is a mechanical problem, sometimes its another thing entirely. Whatever the problem, you know you are going to spend a long time standing in line, or on the phone, while your wait for “the next available customer service representative.” Cue annoying music.

This past weekend, China was hit with a particularly aggressive weather system. A record rain storm in Beijing and a typhoon that passed over Hong Kong wreaked havoc on flight plans all over the country. While AsiaTravel could not keep the storm from coming, we were able to act as advocates for those who had booked travel with us. For those who wanted to let their families know they were alright, even in remote regions, we used their emergency numbers and called home on their behalf. For those who had children scared of the storm, our guides provided laughs. And for those whose flight plans were headed for a snarl, we provided a way out. This past weekend we had a group flying from Guilin to Lijiang via Kunming that had missed their connection as a result of delays. While these travelers were in the air, AsiaTravel arranged for a guide to meet them at their connecting airport free of charge. Our booking department then reached out to the airlines to get our guests on the next available flight, and when that did not work, we turned to our network of contacts to find seats. In the end, the group was able to make it to Lijiang only a few hours later then originally planned.

Our goal when we plan a trip for you is for it to be as smooth as possible, from start to finish. Whether you are exploring the Huanghuacheng section of the Great Wall, watching the sun rise on Mount Meili, or going on a trip to Pabongka Monastery in Tibet, we always prepare for the unexpected.

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Interested in joining us for a journey through China? Email us at info@wildchina.com and we will start working with you to create your perfect itinerary.

Photo of flight screen by Eye on Spain. Photo of fisherman by Michael Deng.

AsiaTravel’s latest installment of Where the Wild Things Are: A AsiaTravel Series is going to feature Asian renaissance man Laurence Brahm. Laurence has made a career out of activism and engagement in Asia for over twenty years. In addition to serving as an economic advisor for Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mongolia, and China over the last two decades, Laurence is also the author of over thirty books on Asian topics ranging from Art, to intellectual property, to business. Laurence is the founder and CEO of Shambhala Serai, a sustainable cultural and eco-tourism boutique hotel group based in Tibet and Beijing. Join us for a drink when Laurence discusses the implications and future of two of his favorite topics: Global Activism and Sustainable Tourism.

DETAILS:

When -Wednesday, September 5th at 6:30pm

Where– Face Bar  at No. 26 Dong Cao Yuan, Gong Ti Nan Street, Chao Yang District, Beijing, China.

How-The cost for the talk is RMB 80 and includes one drink and light appetizers. Reservations are required. To reserve tickets, please call 6465-6602 ext. 341

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To learn more about our Where the Wild Things are Series please see our past events here.

Photo by China Whisper

For the past four years, Tibet experiences a hiatus in tourism during the spring.  As we are moving to the end of May, Tibet is slowly opening up again to travelers.  Currently, permits to the autonomous region out west can be granted to groups of 5 or more people of the same nationality.  Thus, it is the perfect time to gather friends and family for a once-in-a-lifetime trip to this spiritual land…

Our journeys are briefly outlined here in Action Asia magazine, but no matter if it is a trip for your entire family or a group of friends camping out in the Tibetan countryside against the world’s most magnificent mountains, there is certainly something for everyone.

For travelers looking to travel in the Tibetan regions of Sichuan province, Ganze and Dege districts seem to be closed still while Litang and Yading reserves are open to foreigners.  Overland journeys from northwest Yunnan to  southeastern Sichuan are also fine.  For a peek into the lives of monks in these remote monasteries, check out AsiaTravel tour Sacred Buddhist Land.

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For more information, contact us at info@wildchina.com

Earlier today, AsiaTravel received more finalized news that Tibet is temporary closed off to foreign travelers during the month of June.  At present, local authorities are not issuing permits for foreign travelers to visit, although this could change at any moment.

Blossoming flowers outside of Lhasa, Tibet

Paint pots for Thangka painting

AsiaTravel wanted to share that earlier today we received word that local authorities have begun issuing permits for foreign travelers again. Foreign travelers are now able to secure the necessary visa that will enable them to enter Tibet, and we in fact have clients in Lhasa at the moment. AsiaTravel is very pleased with this news as Tibet in the summer is absolutely stunning. We have many clients who have bespoke tours planned through us this summer and look forward to welcoming them to this diverse and culturally rich region.  AsiaTravel will continue to track the situation on the AsiaTravel blog.

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Interested in traveling to Tibet? Take a look at Don’t miss Tibet traveling to Tibet this summer for travel tips and ideas. To learn more, please get in touch at info@wildchina.com.

If you’re like us the night before a big trip you’re always asking yourself: “Do I have everything I need?” And with bag fees on airlines always on the rise: “What do I have that I don’t need?” We sat down with David Fundingsland, AsiaTravel’s Head of Educational travel, following his return from 7 days in Abujee, a verdant mountain region in the north of Yunnan. During his time hiking in these isolated mountains and alpine lakes,  David points to 5 items that were essential to the success of his journey.

Petzl Tikka xp2 Headlamp: On trip, David found his headlamp especially helpful in the Abujee region. For much of the hike, the high canyons cut off the sunlight early in the evening. In such a remote region, there are few clear paths and come dusk, having a good light was key. David has had his Petzl for six years and in all his treks through China, it hasn’t let him down once.

2) Outdoor Research gaiters: While descending the slopes in the Abujee region, having a pair of gaiters was essential.  Many of the mountains are covered in skree and the gaiters kept rocks from popping into David’s boots.

3) First Aid kit: AsiaTravel always has a few of these packed on our trips. But David does things a bit differently– in addition to bandages and disinfectant, he also stores all goods he will be using throughout the day, such as sunsceen, in this pouch. This kit is always kept on top of his bag for easy access.

4) 50 liter backpack: In order to carry all his things from camp to camp, David relied on a 50 liter pack from REI. For this 5-7 day trip, having a bag of this size was perfect. Abujee is a region where you get hot while you are on the move but immediately get chilly while stopping for lunch– easy access to multiple layers is crucial.

5) Medium weight icebreaker socks: Evenings by Abujee can get chilly and in order to keep his feet warm, David relied on a pair of icebreaker merino socks. David also found his socks essential on the crisp cool mornings when they would begin hiking for the day just as the sun was rising.

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If you’re interested in hiking Abujee, contact us at info@wildchina.com. Trips can be customized from 4-13 days in this region.