Messe Düsseldorf is the starting point of a spectacular trip of a lifetime: by motorhome from Düsseldorf to Beijing. On 18 April, the advance party of the adventurous group of 39 will start their adventure on four wheels. A total of 21 motorhomes with participants from Germany, France, Austria, and Switzerland will travel approximately 13,000 km in 10 weeks and cross nine countries in total. On 23 June, they will reach their destination: the exhibition grounds of the All in CARAVANING Beijing trade fair.
Travel along the legendary Silk Road
Starting in Düsseldorf, the group will travel through Warsaw, Riga, Moscow and the Volga valley along the legendary Silk Road from west to east. Participants can expect many cultural highlights as well as impressive routes through endless deserts and mighty mountain ranges.
After the official start in Düsseldorf, they will travel through Berlin, Warsaw and Vilnius, reaching Riga on day 4. During the next 10 days, the group will travel across Russia and see the metropolises of Moscow and Volgograd. Then the travellers will follow the river Volga to its delta near Astrakhan. In Kazakhstan, they will cross the divide from Europe to Asia. Karakalpakstan, the area surrounding the former Aral Sea, offers insights into the vast expanse and solitude of the rugged steppe landscape. Now the travellers access the northern route of the Silk Road and will visit its highlights: Khiva, Bukhara, and Samarkand - an oriental fairy tale straight out of Arabian Nights. In Uzbekistan, the drive continues through Tashkent and the beautiful Fergana valley before the vehicles climb the asphalt track switchbacks into the high mountain ranges of Kyrgyzstan. The old caravansarai of Tash Rabat, at an altitude of 3,300 m, is the last stop in the former USSR before the travellers encounter a new culture in the People's Republic of China.
China - from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region via the Taklamakan Desert to Beijing
Once in China, the group will stay in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region for 10 days. They will travel on toward the Trans Taklamakan desert highway between the slopes of the northern Himalayas and the Tarim valley. Here, the group will cross the “desert of no return” on a floating asphalt track. This is one of the most ambitious road construction projects in China. Other highlights include Dunhuang and Crescent Lake, enormous dunes and the famous Buddha caves.
The trip to Beijing continues via the high plains of Tibet, the old city of Xian with its world-famous terracotta army, the gigantic Buddha statues at the renowned Longmen Grottoes, the Pagoda Forest at the Shaolin Temple of Luoyang, the karst mountain ranges behind Shennong and the ancient city of Pingyao. After the ceremonial act at the 7th All in CARAVANING Beijing, some of the motorhomes will be accompanied to the coast and shipped home from Shanghai. The rest of the group will start their return trip on 25 June via Mongolia, Siberia, and the Russian heartland and continue through Warsaw and Berlin back to Düsseldorf. This trip of approximately 10,000 km takes seven weeks and crosses nine countries.
Kostya Abert - a Caravaning Pioneer
Many visitors to CARAVAN SALON Düsseldorf know Kostya Abert as the key player behind the Traumtouren-Kino, or dream-trip cinema. Since 2009, he and his colleagues, Janette Emerich and Uwe Hamm, have been taking trade fair visitors on virtual trips in their fascinating multi-vision shows. Using top-notch presentation technology, breathtaking photography and acoustic impressions from their trips, they talk live about their dream trips and whisk the trade fair visitors away to a different world.
Kostya Abert will celebrate his 50th birthday during the trip. He has been travelling by motorhome since he was 18, and - as an enthusiastic caravanning pioneer - he has visited all continents in a motorhome. Since 2002, he has been working as a tour guide for SeaBridge Tours. Prior to that he worked as a lecturer at the University of Mainz (International Relations). He has travelled in China by motorhome every year since 2007 and is considered one of the foremost experts on the topic of caravanning in the ‘Middle Kingdom’.
www.caravan-salon.de
Press contact:
Alexander Kempe
Marion Hillesheim
Tel.: +49(0)211/45 60-997/-994
Mail: KempeA@messe-duesseldorf.de
HillesheimM@messe-duesseldorf.de
