Four of China's great mosques
The Great Mosque of Xi'an, Lanzhou's Hui mosques, Urumqi's Grand Mosque and Id Kah in Kashgar.
The full overland road in one journey — from the Great Mosque of Xi'an through halal Lanzhou lamian and the Mogao Caves to Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar. Our longest route and by far the most Muslim-heritage-dense: thirteen days that trace how Islam travelled east along the caravan road, and how it still lives there.
The full overland road in one journey — from the Great Mosque of Xi'an through halal Lanzhou lamian and the Mogao Caves to Id Kah Mosque in Kashgar. Our longest route and by far the most Muslim-heritage-dense: thirteen days that trace how Islam travelled east along the caravan road, and how it still lives there.
The halal guarantee on this route: every restaurant is a certified halal restaurant with no pork and no alcohol on the premises. We send the full list with addresses before you fly, and your guide re-checks each booking the day before you eat there.
The Great Mosque of Xi'an, Lanzhou's Hui mosques, Urumqi's Grand Mosque and Id Kah in Kashgar.
The Buddhist grottoes at Dunhuang, the high point of the old road.
Wuwei, Zhangye's rainbow mountains, Jiayuguan Fort and the singing dunes.
The western end of the road, still recognisably Central Asian.
Laghman, pilaf, samsa, kebabs, naan — the food changes as the road goes west.
The Taklamakan edge, the Tianshan range and the Pamir foothills.
A working skeleton, not a fixed package — we rebuild it around your dates, your prayer needs and whoever is travelling with you.
Halal transfer from XIY, first dinner in the Muslim Quarter.
Fajr optional, the Quarter by day, the wall at golden hour.
Morning at the pits, afternoon train west, halal Lanzhou noodles on arrival.
Five in the morning with the noodle masters, then a slow day in the city.
Up the corridor, with a stop at the Tang stele and a roadside mosque.
Sunrise on the Danxia ridges, then the end of the Ming wall.
The long desert leg, arriving for Maghrib.
The grottoes in the morning, dunes and Crescent Lake for sunset and Maghrib.
Across the mountains to Xinjiang. Grand Bazaar and the city mosque in the evening.
The Turpan depression if time allows, otherwise onward to Kashgar.
Fajr at Id Kah, then the old town with a local guide.
The great market outside the city, then a Uyghur family courtyard for lunch.
Prayer, breakfast, and a transfer to the airport.
This route passes through the four great mosques of Chinese Islam, and halal is the default food across most of it. We carry separate prayer sheets for Beijing time and Xinjiang local time, and every long desert leg is broken at a town with a mosque.
May, June, September and October. July in Turpan is punishing; winter closes some highland sections and makes the desert legs cold but beautiful.
Send us your dates and who is travelling. A Muslim advisor replies within one hour during China working hours with a day-by-day halal plan for this route — restaurants, mosques, prayer times, hotels and an itemised price.