What’s in Xinjiang? Why I’m dying (not literally) to go.

Biggest desert in China

Snow-capped mountains and glaciers

Thousand Buddha Cave

Yurtsand camels galore (gotta love a good yurt)

Seven days in heaven is what it looks like to me. In just one week, you can see some of the most beautiful landscapes in the world. Just one week. And you could cross like a million things off your bucket list (sleeping in a yurt is on mine.Really good ice breaker, “Hey, sup, I just woke up in my YURT. Ya. Yurt meright.”). It still blows my mind that you can see all this in just a week. And it’s all in pretty much the same area. Just one massively awesome chunk of land in northern China where you can see deserts, mountains, thousands of Buddhas and more.

The Taklamakan Desert is one of the largest deserts in the world. Traveling caravans used to pass through this desert to the Silk Road, making the dangerous journey even more dangerous.

You also visit Kashgar which is the center of trading on the Silk Road (that road in Marco Polo that everyone’s talking about, yep that’s the one). This is a major trading root and they sell all sorts of stuff at their world resound bazars! This place is a treasure trove from what I’ve read. In culture and history, here is a place that is rich in both. Rare and beautiful, this place is a cross road for a ton of cultures and countries.

There’s alsothree awesomely high peaks that you can see from the lake:

MuztaghAta

beijing 2
Kongur Tagh,

andKongur Tiube.

Andthe lake its self is gorgeous (step aside small puddle outside my window, thisis a real body of water).

It’s known for being 3600 meters above sea level and, because of the mountains that surround it, you are able to get very clear pictures of the mountains reflection in the water (but this totally depends on your camera, I think I would have better luck with my IPhone 6 than my 5-year-old Sony, sorry little buddy).

TheThousand Buddha cave. That’s a lot of eyes. Lots of Buddha eyes. This place is the Buddhist center on the Silkroad (the Silk road has everything!). There were 83 original caves, now only 57remain (after so many people staring at me I would probably disappear too). In addition to the caves, there are murals as well (gotta cover everything with Buddha). But as other religious influences grew, the caves became less popular.With time, vandals ransacked and destroyed parts of the caves. The murals and carvings left give you an idea of what it looked like back in its glory days (much like my high school photos).

Yurts! I love yurts! The are so cute and cozy looking. Like a soft warm fluffy house (that I would never leave). A yurt is a portable house made of a wooden structure that holds up patches of wool covering. I’ve read that you sleep on comfy blankets and that the experience was very pleasant (sign-me up!). For me, honestly, this would probably be the highlight of the trip (they’d have to carry me out).

This trip has so much more than even the 5 things I listed though! Check out our trips on our website (you are already here! You are so ahead of the curve) and ourWechat!

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Website: www.wannatravelshanghai.com

Something about us:

17.07 Get wet and wild! Rafting, river hiking, swimming in natural pool!

15-17.07 Moganshan cycling and swimming in the lake!

15-17.07 Zhangjiajie – the Avatar mountains and glass walk!

22-24.07 Yellow mountains! Discount for students!

22-24.07 Camping on the magnificent Great Wall!

23.07 Paragliding + BBQ + Chinese lanterns!

24.07 Horse riding on the island + BBQ!

29-31.07 River hiking/swimming/cliff jumping and camping!

5-7.08 Rafting trip: swimming, waterfalls, bamboo forest! Anji!

15-17.09 Guilin: Longji terraces and Yangshuo!

15-17.09 Hike China’s best Oxygen bar!

15-17.09 Meditation and yoga retreat in a temple

15-17.09 Trip to Wild China! “Shangri-la of the East!”

23-25.06 Hike Jiuhua Mt: unique temple on mountain top!

1-7.10 Seven day in incredible Xinjiang! You won’t believe you are in China!

1-7.10 Tibet and Everest Base camp!

1-7.10 Wonders of Yunnan: Shangri-la, Lijiang, Tiger leaping gorge!

Private tours: Xi’an, Beijing, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Chengdu, Tibet!

www.wannatravelshanghai.com

5 Facts You (probably) Don’t Know About The Great Wall of China

July 11, 2016 July 11, 2016
Wanna Travel Admin
Wanna Travel Blog
beijing, Camping, Great wall, Mountain, Nature, shanghai, travel, trip, wannatravel

1. The GreatWall was 21,196.18 kilometers (13,170 miles) long, but is now only(only, lol, like its short or something) 8851.8 kilometers (5500 miles) long.To put this in prospective, the circumference of the Earth is 40,075 kilometers(24,901 miles), that means that the Great Wall of China, one of the sevenwonders of the world, would only need to be replicated 4 and a half times tomake it all the way around the world. So if you walked the Great Wall 4 and ahalf times, you would have walked around the world, hmmm. Interesting thought.Challenge accepted.

2. Construction of the Great Wall lasted from between770-476BC and lasted till 1368-1644 in theMing Dynasty. The complete wall that we see today (or what hasn’t beeneroded…yet) was built in sections over a period of about 2,000 years (yikesthat’s a long time). As time went on, each dynasty conquered more and more land(yessss more land, the precious), and each time they extended the wall toprotect it (protect the precious *hisssss*). Over the years, they used slaves,the poor, and even criminals (seems kind of strange to entrust criminals tobuild a wall to keep people safe, but oh well!) to build this massivestructure. As the saying goes, Rome was not built in a day, and neither was theGreat Wall (not like I expected it to be, well maybe a little).

3. About 1/3 of the Great Wall has disappeared…without atrace (aliens anyone?). It’s due to a combination of natural erosion and humans- village people nearby used them to build their houses during the CulturalRevolution (“and this side of the house is made of newly resorted Great Wall”says every villager). But really though, being able to carry around a piece ofone of the seven wonders of the world in your pocket? Insanity. There are lawsabout that though, so try and keep your kleptomaniac tendencies hidden, atleast until you’re in your car. Headed in the opposite direction. Far away fromme.

The protection laws regarding the Great Wall are asfollows:

According to article No. 18, the following activities on the wall areforbidden:

1. Take away earth, bricks, stones and plant crops. (hmmm, yes theGreat Wall is the perfect place to grown my lovely sun flowers, said no oneever.)

2. Vandalism and graffiti (But what if it’s pretty?)

3. Span or fix any establishment, fixtures, or equipment irrelevant tothe Great Wall protection. (Interesting. Don’t fix it if it’s irrelevant. Goodlife advice.)

4. Drive or span over the wall using any vehicle. (Yes, lets’ driveour 2014 bubble bee yellow Hummer over the 2000-year-old wall.)

5. Carry any items that may destroy the wall. (Like my hands?)

6. Organize activities on the sections that have not been developedinto tourist areas. (Dang, so no surprise birthday parties on the Great Wall?Crap I gotta cancel that bouncy house.)

7. Any other activities that are forbidden by laws and regulations onprotection of cultural relics.

So it your wonder if you should, maybe just don’t.

4. Manynational leaders have visited the Great Wall (including me, national leader ofme myself and I). Here’s some people you probably know (if not, look ‘em up!):

Margaret Thatcher

Richard Nixon

Constantin Dascalescu

Queen Elizabeth II

Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin

George W. Bush

Vladimir Putin

Stephen Harper

David Cameron

Micheal Jordan

Lebron James

5. When should you visit the Great Wall (cause you have to go!)? It really depends on you, andyour feelings about weather…. You could go in the summer, when it’s hot,everywhere (mostly…). The average temperature between June and August is around86 degrees Fahrenheit (or 30 degrees Celsius for the rest of the world). Andits tourist season so everybody and their mothers’ brothers’ dog is gonna bethere. But summer is the prime time to visit, kids are out of school (sorryparents) and the weather is beautiful. As for your mothers’ brothers’ dog issue(really hope you don’t call it your cousin…), make arrangements with a privatetour company. Perfect example, Wanna Travel. The Great Wall Camping trip is oneof their most popular tours, and for good reason. You camp on the Great Wall.So not only do you get to see the non-touristy stuff (hallelujah!), you alsocamp there overnight, bonfire, marshmallows and all. Then to top it all off(cause being able to stay overnight at one of the seven wonders of the worldisn’t great enough on its’ own), you have a prime, perfect, magical view of thesunrise. Nothing starts a day off better than watching the sun rise from theGreat Wall (speaking from experience here). Granted it was early (it might havebeen a hallucination I was so tired) and I hadn’t had my daily Mocha Java ChipFrappuccino (yes I am a white girl), it was one of the most peaceful andmemorable moments of my life (which was then roughly thrown back into realitywhen a water bottle was dropped on my head, story for another time).

By Katie S.

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Our next camping on the Great Wall trips:

Dates:

July 23-24

August 27-28

September 24-25

October 3-4

More info: https://wannatravelshanghai.com/trips/camping-on-the-magnificent-great-wall/

Shanghai in the eyes of a newcomer

July 6, 2016 July 6, 2016
Wanna Travel Admin
Wanna Travel Blog
cultural event, Great wall, shanghai, temple, travel, trip, wannatravel

Do you rememember what was your impression of Shanghai when you just came here? Since that time Shanghai has changed a lot… Check out what impressions newcomers get now!

By: Katie Stuhlmueller

1. See

Tianzifang Street

During my first week in Shanghai, Tianzifang street was a highlight. This maze of streets was once the French Concession area of Shanghai and is now home to many cafes, shops, design studios, boutiques and galleries. It’s the perfect place to spend an afternoon shopping for unique trinkets or grab coffee and a snack at one of the small cafes. My friends and I wandered in and out of shops and bought cute snacks for about 3 hours and we honestly could have stayed longer.

The Bund

The Bund is one of Shanghai’s most popular tourist attractions, and was one of our first stops. This collection of sky scrapers is the architectural and financial center of Shanghai. It is made up of over 50 different buildings of various style, ranging from Gothic to Renaissance. You can’t go to Shanghai without seeing the Bund, it’s a must do. Unfortunately, the day we went was pretty rainy, so our pictures didn’t turn out great. But it was fun to see what all the fuss was about, and now having seen it, I can definitely see why.

Any Mall

It feels like there are malls around every corner of Shanghai, and these are not your normal everyday American malls. Most are the same size, if not bigger, than the famous Mall of America, which houses 560 stores with 4 levels. They have everything from grocery stores to high end fashion, and restaurants everywhere. If there was a zombie apocalypse I would be barricading myself in one of these.

East Nanjing Road

One of the world’s busiest shopping streets. This place has it all, it’s like a giant out door mall. Large, name brand stores line the street in buildings that are larger than life. The Apple store and Forever 21 were two of our favorites. Forever 21 boasting 4 floors of clothes, shoes, make up, and more. And the Apple store, with its high ceilings and glass walls, is, as always, very popular. Our group visited this street twice in one week (I know, its sounds like a lot) and once was during the day and the other in the late evening, and it was equally packed both times. Even so, we comfortably made our way through the crowds to each and every one of our favorite stores.

2. Do

Hike the Great Wall

The Great Wall of China. One of the seven wonders of the world, and it’s a wonder we didn’t die on it. if you are an avid hiker, you would love the Great Wall, even if you were midley active you’d be fine, but I’m vertically challenged (nice way of saying I have stubs for legs) and haven’t taken a gym class in over 5 years. Safe to say it was hard for me, but none the less, I enjoyed it! the weather was nice and sunny and the wall has many little rooms built into it, so every so often you can stop for a water break (in my case a cry break). We walked for about 2 hours and then took the toboggan ride back (you pay 5 rmb, so worth though).

Temple

All of the temples you come across in China are beautiful and unique. Each one has a Buda statue of some kind, and other gods alike. There’s incense you can buy and burn, or, my personal favorite, throwing a 1-yuan coin into what looks like a large wood burning furnace in the middle of the temple. If you get it in your wish comes true! Also note that these are places of worship and the people there require peace and quiet (I’m looking at you). My friends and I visited the Jing’an temple, which is kind of touristy, but still very good. We were even able to watch them sing and play instruments (I thought this was the coolest thing ever).

3. Eat

Noodles

Noodles. Oh delicious noodles. You fill my stomach like little tasty doguh snakes (weird image I know). If you see the word noodle and think pasta, grab that thought and toss it out the window! These Shanghia noodles are not your everyday spageti. Coated in sause and mixed in with veggies and meat, this dish screams “eat me”. There are so many different kinds (it’s my lifes mission to try all of them) and each one uses the same Shanghai noodle. If I could eat them everyday, I would, and I would also weigh about 4 times as much as a I do now. But you seriously can not pass up the opportunity to taste this amazingly diverse dish. If your traveling to many cities in China, try the noodles from each city, they’re all so different, but all delicious.

Xioalongbao

These little guys are steamed buns with soup and your choice of meat inside. Heaven in a little edibale package. Theres even a special way to eat them (keeps you from getting delicious soupyness all over your probably twice worn travel shirt, lets be honest). We ordered one plate of mushroom and one of beef, and both were fantastic. We liked this dish so much that we went to the same resturant more than once, and they aren’t exspensive either (que happy tummy dance).

Pictures from: Wikapedia.com Mildchina.com Timeoutshanghai.com 9to5mac.com

shanghaicina.com wannatravelshanghai.com www.expedia.com

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Something about us:

Our coming trips:

10.07 Get wet and wild! Rafting, river hiking, swimming in natural pool!

15-17.07 Moganshan cycling and swimming in the lake!

15-17.07 Zhangjiajie – the Avatar mountains and glass walk!

22-24.07 Yellow mountains! Discount for students!

22-24.07 Camping on the magnificent Great Wall!

23.07 Paragliding + BBQ + Chinese lanterns!

24.07 Horse riding on the island + BBQ!

29-31.07 River hiking/swimming/cliff jumping and camping!

5-7.08 Rafting trip: swimming, waterfalls, bamboo forest! Anji!

15-17.09 Guilin: Longji terraces and Yangshuo!

15-17.09 Hike China’s best Oxygen bar!

15-17.09 Meditation and yoga retreat in a temple

15-17.09 Trip to Wild China! “Shangri-la of the East!”

23-25.06 Hike Jiuhua Mt: unique temple on mountain top!

1-7.10 Seven day in incredible Xinjiang! You won’t believe you are in China!

1-7.10 Tibet and Everest Base camp!

1-7.10 Wonders of Yunnan: Shangri-la, Lijiang, Tiger leaping gorge!

Private tours: Xi’an, Beijing, Zhangjiajie, Guilin, Chengdu, Tibet!

www.wannatravelshanghai.com

Private tour for AGIC (l’Associazione Giovani Italiani In Cina):

Wild trail hiking, waterfalls, swimming: Lin’an Big Dragon bay! JUne 24-26th. 30 members of AGIC joined us for a fun weekend! See you next time!

China’e Best Oxygen Bar trip! (Dragon boat festival June 9-11th). 31 cust0mers and 1 lucky draw winner have joined our trip to Pan’an countty to explore an ancient village, hike through rice and tea terraces to the mountain top and visit incredible scenic area with green blue river and countless waterfalls! It was an unforgettable trip!

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Meditation and yoga retreat in a temple (Dragon boat holiday)

June 17, 2016 June 17, 2016
Wanna Travel Admin
Uncategorized
dragon boat, getaway, Holiday, meditation, retreat, shanghai, temple, travel, trip, wannatravel, yoga

Meditation and yoga retreat in a temple June 9-11th (Dragon boat holiday). Join us for our next retreat during Mooncake festival September 15-17th!

1. Dragon boat race, rafting and 19 KM hiking in bamboo forest!

Destination: Anji, Zhejiang
What to do during Dragon boat festival? Let’s take part in dragon boat race ourselves! Have an amazing off-trail hike in Anji bamboo forest, compete in white water rafting, swim in natural pool and cheers with new friends at bonfire party! This is a unique summer time experience!

Price: 1099 rmb

2. Hike in “China’s best oxygen bar”!

Destination: Pan’an county, Zhejiang

Have you ever heard about Pan’an county? It’s an amazing hidden from majority of tourists place with incredible mountains scenery, green blue river, green valleys, stunning waterfalls, ancient towns and clean air! The air quality and 99% of the water quality of this place is up to the national standards of class A, that is why it is called “China’s forest oxygen bar!”

Traveling alone? It is more than a trip: It is an ideal chance to make friends, share this amazing experience and cheers at bonfire party!

Price: 999 rmb

3. Trip to Wild China! Camping and water gun fight!

Destination: Gongyu, Zhejiang

It is time to turn off your cell phone, pack everything you need to survive in a isolated but beautiful part of east zhejiang province!
Forget about wifi, your comfy bed and A/C! You will hike in the middle of nowhere, you will live in an isolated Chinese village at the the height of 600 meters above the sea level and enjoy simple life! A unique chance to learn about local culture and get out of your comfort zone! Bonfire, music, stars… and water gun fight!

Price: 899 rmb

4. Yoga and Meditation retreat in a temple

If you are looking for a getaway where you can really get away from it all, treat yourself a weekend of detox, relax, purification and inner peace and balance!
No matter your preferred style of yoga, whether you are beginner or expert, this retreat will offer you soothing escapes and life-changing experiences. Switch off your phone, forget your problems and step into the world of simplicity and self-revitalization!

Price: 1099 rmb
5. Explore stunning Guilin: Longji terraces and Yangshuo!

Explore what Guilin has to offer: get lost in cascading rice terraces like nowhere else, bike in the countryside to the famous moon hill, take a picture on ancient bridge, relax while boating with gorgeous mountain view and breath in the clean air! It is going to be an unforgettable and unique holiday at one of the most beautful places in China!
Endless rice terraces cascading down into the valley below and the spectacular backdrop of a 2000 meter high mountain ridge is always an unforgettable holiday experience and includes some of the most beautiful mountain scenery in Guangxi Province!