At the beginning of the year, WildChina founder Zhang Mei attended the Condé Nast Traveler Exchange in Las Vegas and met other Top Travel Specialists around the world. In sharing their unique ideas about travel to (literally) their areas of expertise, a few of the Conde Nast travel specialists soon realized that their passion for travel could be, and needed to be, extended even further! Thus, a small group including WildChina, has come together to form the Destination Expert Alliance (DEA)
WildChina frequently receives requests for quality tour options around the world, and while we would like to serve our clients’ needs in this area, we only specialize in China. For this reason, we feel it has become necessary to provide out clients with touring options around the world that match the WildChina standards of service and responsible travel.
Last week, we were honored to have the president of one of DEA partners visit our WildChina office in Beijing. We would like to introduce Mr. Jalsa Urubsharow, founder and CEO of Nomadic Expeditions in Mongolia…
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As the founder and CEO of the top travel company in Mongolia, Jalsa sure does look the part — his wide smile, wriggling brows & whiskers, and his rosy, wind-swept cheeks give off the impression that he just recently dismounted a camel in the Gobi Desert to come talk to us. (His just-off-of-the-grasslands appearance made his American accent and humour quite the surprise!)
Jovial and enthusiastic, he talks animatedly about Mongolia’s natural beauty and all that it has to offer tourists and visitors:
“Everyone says, ‘Come to my 5-star hotel or come to my 5-restaurant or whatever’; I say come to Mongolia where 5 million stars in the night sky can serve as your breathtaking rooftop.”
From the natural lakes, the coniferous forests, and the mountains of the north to the vast grasslands and the Gobi Desert in the south, Mongolia offers a huge range of unspoilt wildlife for travelers to explore.
A couple of suggestions Jalsa had were:
The Nomadic Expeditions’ Three Camel Lodge. A form of “glamping” or glamorous camping, the Three Camel Lodge is a luxury ger or yurt camp in the heart of the Gobi Desert. It is located as close as one can be to the Flaming Cliffs, named so by the blood-red color the rock face turns under the setting sun. (These are mountains located on the eastern edge of Xinjiang province of northwestern China). As part of Nomadic Expeditions’ efforts to sustain the local economy and promote their culture, much of the material used in both the construction of the gers and in their outfitting and interior decoration comes from the surrounding tribes.
Lake Hovsgol is the cleanest freshwater lake in the world – if you throw a rock in, says Jalsa, you can see it for more than 90 meters (almost 300 feet) down. This pristine body of water is where Jalsa is constructing his new lodge. Like the Three Camels Lodge, it will be almost 100% self-sustainable, with solar panel powered light bulbs in each ger.
In 1999, Jalsa founded an NGO, the Berkut Association, in Bayan Ulgii to promote the great Kazakh tradition of hunting by Golden Eagle. Today more than 60 hunters gather every year from all over northern Mongolia to partake in the Golden Eagle Festival motivating younger members of their tribes to preserve this once almost-extinct tradition. Join in on the fun by traveling to Bayan-Ulgii province in western Mongolia in the fall.
We thank Jalsa for the great tips & hope to meet again on the grasslands!
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To learn about travel to other destinations such as Africa and Southeast Asia by members of the Destination Expert Alliance, please visit: http://wildchinajourneys.comabout-wildchina/travel-partners
