Tuesday, May 18, 2004
Alpine Tour in China!
An Alpine Tour with a difference awaits a handful of keen travelers in China in July.
Just four spaces are available at a bargain all-inclusive $NZ5500 for a 17-day tour through the spectacular alpine
region of Sichuan Province in China.
A team of keen motorcycle adventurers is making the trip and has spaces available in the van accompanying them.
"At present, we have a team of five Australians and three New Zealanders making the trip," says Michael Esdaile of
AD-HOC & Associates, the New Zealand organiser of the tour.
"In addition to Chengdu-based guides in a lead four-wheel drive vehicle, we have arranged a van to travel the route,
primarily to carry our baggage. However, our Chinese ground operators tell me they have plenty of seating in the van so
we could take up to four addition passengers. And because the van is going anyway, we can offer the seats at $5500
which is well below what we are paying to rent and ride motorcycles," Mr. Esdaile adds.
The 17-day tour, which departs Auckland on July 8, will provide specatcular alpine vistas as well as the opportunity to
get close to pandas, not to mention yaks. And there may even be the possibility of seeing snow leopards.
In addition, there are historic archeological sites, a Ming dynasty temple, the United Nations World Heritage listed
Jiu-Zhai-gou valley deep in the Min Shan mountain range with its Tibetan peoples¹ villages, dense virgin forests and
more than 100 lakes.
The tour will also visit the lakes of Huang-long which are bounded by naturally calcified borders set amongst
snow-capped mountains and traverse an unpaved road across the Rou-er-gai Grassland, a high plateau populated by Tibetan
people.
Then it is on to Tang-ke to see the nine-curves of the Yellow River before tracking into Jia-rong the Valley of
Tibetan Beauties.
Then, affter traversing the Mount Ba-lang pass at 4487 metres (14,721 feet), the tour continues on to visit the Giant
Pandas at Wo-long the world¹s only Panda sanctuary.
After that, it¹s all down hill (literally) back to Chengdu at a mere 600 metres passing the 2000-year-old Du-jiang-yan
water project along the way.
So there you go 17 days of unparalleled Alpine Adventure, with a night in Bangkok to get your bearings before
returning to the Lands Down Under.
"We supply airfares, transport, accomodation, all meals, guides and scenery. All you have to do is stump up $NZ5500,"
says Ad-Hoc & Associates Michael Esdaile.
Departure is July 8 ex-Auckland.
ENDS