Your recommendations for a holiday in Xinjiang please.

[david.lodge]

English national running a factory in sunny shenzhen and planning a holiday later this month with my family- we all speak chinese. Tempted to swallow my pride, put on the hat and follow the flag of the travel goup leader as I just dont have time to plan a trip to take in the sights. Can anyone give some advice on places to go- and avoid- in Xinjiang and any personal experiences of Chinese travel groups- especially as 外国人 in a predominantly Chinese group. They always look so stressed and hurried to me when I see them and that's not my idea of a holiday. I'm comforting myself by thinking at least if the travelling group holiday is not so good we'll all get a free hat.

[confucius]

Maximize your time in Turpan and Kashgar (Kashi), minimize your time in Urumqi.

Try to include Sunday in Kashgar as part of your itinerary, if possible. An overnight trip to Karakuli Lake from Kashgar can be arranged by yourself.

Don't go with Chinese tour groups to Tian Chi as a day trip from Urumqi.

[geraldc]

I have experiences of travelling in Chinese tour group, but I'm overseas Chinese so somethings did seem a little strange.

I've been on UK Chinese package tour of Paris, and a Hong Kong based package tour of Guangdong.

There's always a fair bit of follow the guide with the extendable flag when you go anywhere with a Chinese tour group in China, less so when overseas.

We didn't get given baseball hats, but we were given sticker badges to wear initially, so the guide could shepherd us through immigration etc.

There's always a bit of karaoke or just random singing on the coach, especially on the last day, where the guides admit they're singing for tips etc.

The bits I didn't like were the compulsory stop offs for souvenir shopping. They always strike me as a little strange.

[Ian_Lee]

There are numerous itineraries on Xinjiang offered by tour agencies in Hong Kong. This one (formerly P & O) offers 6-7 routes including Gansu Corridor + Central Xinjiang, or + northern Xinjiang, or + southern Xinjiang, or + Qinghai,......etc:

http://www.skytravel.com.hk/top/chi/tour.asp?Area=15

Another travel agency offers the deluxe Silk Road Express Train trip in Xinjiang:

http://www.jetour-holiday.com/tsearch4ward.jsp

And Dragonair has direct flight from HK to Xinjiang since July 8th.