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Detailed Itinerary

Day 1 – Arrival in Beijing
Morning arrival in Beijing and transfer to our 4 star hotel near the airport. We plan to visit the Summer Palace, the largest imperial garden in the world and a museum of classical Chinese garden architecture. The spacious park is full of commoner Chinese birds and this will be a pleasant and leisurely stroll to acquaint ourselves with many of them such as Blue and Azure-winged Magpies, Yellow-rumped Flycatcher, perhaps Yellow Bittern, Ruddy-breasted Crake, and several of the many species of buntings we are likely to encounter. Night in Beijing.

Day 2 – Ibisbill site and Great Wall; flight to Xining
After an early breakfast, we check out and head to a site where the Ibisbill has occurred, and with luck we’ll see this mythical bird. We then will visit the Great Wall, one of the greatest wonders of the world and a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is likely to be crowded, but we could still find Daurian Jackdaw, Daurian Redstart, Vinous-throated Parrotbill, Siberian Accentor, rosefinches and Rock Bunting. In the evening we fly to Xining (pronounced “she-ning”), the capital city of Qinghai (“ching – hi”) Province, and we settle into our three-star hotel. Night in Xining.

Day 3 – Xining area
We spend the morning birding in forested areas for species such as White-browed and Crested Tit-Warblers as well as Goldcrest, leaf warblers and Chinese and Przevalski’s Nuthatches. In the afternoon we bird the eroded gullies close to town for Rufous-tailed Rockthrush, White Wagtail, Pere David’s Laughingthrush, Red-billed Chough and many others, including an isolated population of Sinai Rosefinch. Night in Xining.

Day 4 – Koko Nor
Today we bird our way west to Koko Nor and the desert beyond. In 1868, it took Pere David, a missionary-explorer, a year and a half, to travel to Koko Nor, an expedition that required a four month wait to travel by boat up the Yangtze. Nowadays it takes three hours, including a breakfast stop. The scenery here is awesome. This is the largest lake in China; it is at 3200 m and the far shore at 10 km away can just be made out. Yaks graze on wildflower flats, and clouds hide the mountain tops. Close inshore waterbirds include Red-crested Pochards and Great Crested Grebes, and landbirds include several snowfinches – Black-necked, Rufous-winged, Pere David’s and White-rumped. The high altitude desert west of Koko Nor could produce birds with such exotic sounding names as Hume’s Groundpecker, and in the extensive marshes we might find Black-necked Crane. Night in more basic hotel.

Day 5 – Koko Nor area
We visit secluded valleys above the desert, looking for specialties of the area such as Przevalski’s Redstart, Pine Bunting and Przevalski’s Partridge, and we have a chance of locating mammals such as Blue Sheep and Goitered Gazelle. In the afternoon, we bird the desert regions, targeting Pallas’s Sandgrouse, Henderson’s Ground Jay and Blandford’s Snowfinch. Night in basic hotel.

Day 6 – Koko Nor area
This morning we spend our time birding alpine scrub with our targets being Przevalski’s Rosefinch, Tibetan Partridge and Stoliczka’s Tit-warbler, but we could find goodies such as Lammergeier. In the afternoon we bird marshes for Bar-headed Goose, Great Black-headed Gull and Long-billed Calandra Lark, as well as Ruddy Shelduck, Brown-headed Gull and Citrine Wagtail. Night at Koko Nor.

Day 7 – Return to Xining
We return today to Xining, stopping at several spots and concentrating on those species that may have eluded us up to this point. Since we are in the midst of spring migration, then there are lots of possibilities of finding new and surprising birds. Night in Xining.

Day 8 – Xining and return to Beijing
If we have not located the splendid Crested Tit-warbler, Przevalski’s and Chinese Nuthatches and Chinese White-browed Rosefinch by now, then we will visit a different forest site to try to locate these specialties. Later in the day we fly to Beijing. Night in Beijing.

Day 9 – Beidahue
In the morning we transfer to Beidahue, where we spend the remainder of the day birding a couple of the main birding sites. There should be plenty to see as migrants pour through!. Night in three-start hotel in Beidahue.

Days 10 – 12 – Happy Island
We transfer to Happy Island for an exciting three day stay. Happy Island, now widely recognized as by far the most birder-friendly place on the East Asia flyway, is only 1 km x 1.5 km in size, and has a diverse array of habitats: grassy-reed marshes and flats, thickets of scrub, rolling dunes, shrimp ponds, and a central wood adjacent to an old temple. Waves of migrants occur on the island – Brown Shrikes, Siberian Rubythroats, Rufous-tailed Robins, Siberian Stonechats, Siberian and Eye-browed Thrushes, Dusky and Radde’s Warblers, Little Buntings and many more, and with them come vagrants – maybe a Fairy Pitta, a Blue Whistling-thrush, a Golden-spectacled Warbler or any of a dozen exotic flycatchers. The possibilities seem endless! The surrounding sea is shallow, with tidal mudflats that make an important staging area for shorebirds and gulls. Great Knot and Asiatic Dowitcher are regularly present in their thousands, while the endangered Nordmann’s Greenshank is annual. Maybe even that enigmatic shorebird the Spoon-billed Sandpiper! Among the gulls we will look for Relict Gull and Saunder’s Gull.. Scanning the skies should reward us with Eastern Marsh Harriers, Oriental Honey-Buzzards, Amur Falcons and possibly the strikingly plumaged Pied Harrier. Nights on Happy Island.

Day 13 – Back to Beijing
We spend the morning birding on Happy Island, and then after lunch we transfer back to Beijing. Night in four-star hotel in Beijing.

Day 14 – Beijing
We spend the day sight-seeing in Beijing, where we will visit Tian’anmen Square, the Forbidden City of the Chinese Emperors and the Lama Temple. We will have a farewell dinner of Beijing Duck! Night in Beijing.

Day 15 – Departure
The tour concludes in Beijing after breakfast.

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What to Expect

Be prepared for changeable weather conditions, with blue skies alternating with overcast conditions. Rain is likely, and we could even have snow at the higher altitudes. Temperatures could range from 0 – 25 C in Qinghai and 10 – 25 c in the Beijing – Happy Island area. A wind-chill factor should be taken into account. Accommodations will range from four-star hotels in Beijing to simple and basic at Koko Nor and Happy Island. At Koko Nor we stay in simple, clean rooms with two beds but with no private facilities, and at Happy Island we stay in attractive, clean huts with a shower and toilet shared between a single and two double rooms. Food will range from western-style in Beijing to traditionally Chinese at Beidahue.

As four days will be spent above 3000 m, with birding above 3800 m, it is important for anyone with heart or respiratory ailments seek medical advice before deciding to participate; only basic medical facilities exist away from Xining and Beijing. However, anyone in good health and reasonably fit should experience few problems. Also, we will not be trekking, therefore our pace will be slow. We will cover steep terrain in places in order to reach the habitat that is our goal.

We will follow our itinerary closely; however should circumstances occur where we cannot do this, then a degree of flexibility is required, and participants should be adventurous and willing to put up with the occasional discomfort which is inherent in such travel to remote and culturally different areas.