Moscow - Irkutsk - Ulan-Bator - Beijing,
11 days / 10 nights

Baikal Lake is the oldest (25 million years) and the deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains about 20 per cent of the world`s total freshwater reserve. This beautiful lake is located in the South-Eastern part of Siberia and is famous for unique clarity of its waters and diversity of flora and fauna: it contains more than 1,700 species of plants and animals. In 1996 the Baikal Lake was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Taltsi Museum of Architecture and Ethnography is located on the Angara 47 km south of Irkutsk. It is an open-air museum of Siberian traditional architecture. The museum contains numerous unique historical wooden buildings from villages in the Angara valley which have been flooded after the construction of the Bratsk Dam and Ust-Ilimsk Dam and have been transported to the museum and reassembled there.

The Gorkhi-Terelj National Park is one of the Mongolian national parks. This park has a tourist zone with a number of tourist camps. Attractions include a 20m deep glacial Khagiin Khar Lake, natural Yestii Hot Water Springs and a Buddhist monastery that is open to visitors. The wildlife of the Gorkhi-Terelj National Park includes brown bears and over 250 species of birds.

The only architectural structure visible from space, the Great Wall is a grandiose monument to the ancient Chinese civilization. The construction of the wall, which was to hold off the invaders from the numerous militant tribes, was started in the 7th century B.C. The total lengh of the wall is 6,700 kilometers.

The Forbidden City in the centre of Beijing was the Chinese imperial palace during the Ming and Qing dynasties. Today, the Forbidden City is a public museum and attracts millions of tourists from all over the world. In 1987 The Forbidden City was declared a World Heritage Site and is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world.

The Temple of Heaven is the largest existing complex of Taoist buildings in the southeastern part of central Beijing. The Temple was built in 1420 A.D. The Emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties annually visited the Temple for ceremonies of prayer to Heaven for good harvest. The principle buildings include the Altar of Prayer for Good Harvests, Imperial Vault of Heaven and Circular Mound Altar.

The Summer Palace, situated in the western outskirts of Haidian District, is the largest imperial park in the world. It covers expansion of 2.9 square kilometers, three quarters of which is water. In 1860 the most buildings were destroyed by the plundering of foreign troops, but in 1888 the buildings were renovated by Empress Dowager Cixi. In 1998 this genuine museum of classical Chinese garden architecture was listed as one of the World Heritage Sites by UNESCO.

The Ming Tombs are located 50 kilometers northwest from Beijing at a specially selected site. The Ming Tombs are the mausoleums of 13 emperors of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). Only the Changling and Dingling tombs are open to the public.