Badain Jaran Desert trekking tour, China

Planet

Activity:
We understand the importance of developing tours that are sustainable and reduce the impacts on the environment. This itinerary is acutely aware of the need to protect the historical sites along the Silk Road like the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, The First Fire Tower Of The Great Wall, Overhanging Great Wall, Jiayu Pass, Zhangye Danxia Geopark, Bingling Temple in Lanzhou.... We will have chance to fully experience the rural regions like Ejinaqi and Alax Youqi in Inner Mongolia. All of the activities could be regard as kind of significant learning for both for current and future generations. We strive to operate all our tours and our business with as minimal environmental impact as possible.

Our tour guides will have a set of guidelines for such a special tour, and inform the correlation matters needing attention. We visit them deeply and pay entrance fees to sustain such precious sites. Escape from the bustling city and crowds, trekking on the desert allows you opportunity to see the locals’ daily life better. It is suggested that we try not use those one-time used items and create as much less waste as we can.

Water bottles:
Water is a really important issue on along trekkiing trip and whilst we must stay hydrated. We have a system for providing clean water without causing lots of waste with plastic bottles. We encourage our passengers to refill a water bottle from water 'bubblers' where available to avoid unnecessary purchasing of bottled water and the subsequent waste disposal issues.

Waste:
When trekking or hiking in the desert, we encourage clients to stick to bring all waste to next town on this travel route and disposed of appropriately in local garbage collection facilities. These include recycling as appropriate.

Transport:
We use 4WD along this tour most of time which have lower impact on the environment compare with the tours that use big tourism bus. Our clients could not only experience the special view with good feeling, meanwhile this also distribute tourism benefits to rural locations as we rent the 4WD from local suppliers.

Office:
It is advocated to recycle paper and ink cartridges to reduce the waste in landfill sites. We turn off printers, computers, battery chargers and transformers at the end of each day and use energy-efficient bulbs and low-energy appliances.

People

Local services:
We engage locally-owned and operated services thereby supporting local people and communities as well as minimizing use of long and carbon-intensive supply chains.

Accommodation and Meals:
We camp for overnight stay in the desert with our own camping gears, and where feasible we stay in locally owned and simpler styles of hostel. We endeavor to include and strongly encourage our travelers to eat locally produced food and goods. This reduces energy resources consumed through production and transport of the food and goods purchased by our travelers.

A fair wages to local guides and drives:
We use all local guides and drivers so that we learn about the culture and way of life directly from those who live it and put money into local hands and economies. All receive fair wages and are provided with training opportunities both direct from us and from the local tourism bureau. Our guides are also responsible for advising travelers of the appropriate recycling options available in each place.

Group Size:
This small group tour has a maximum of 16 participants, meaning that we have a low impact on the environments and communities we visit and are able to ensure that we do not disrupt or lead to the displacement of local people.