Blogs from Dunhuang, Gansu, China, Asia - page 2

DUNHUANG. WEDNESDAY. 18.6.14 Dunhuang is an appealing city, a small, modern central CBD, offering reasonable fashion shopping, a variety of supermarkets and liquor stores, and a few outdoor shops. It is promoted as the gateway to the Silk Road and pictures of camels abound. The city didn't appear to be very busy, perhaps it was siesta time. Western China does gave a two hour siesta period in mid afternoon. Many shops appear to stay open until 10 pm. There is a tourist dining street, with the roadway lined with tables and chairs, bordered by hot coals' BBQs grilling lamb and chicken skewers, selling recently baked hot bread and veg. You must eat the bread when it is served hot, as when it 's cooled it is hard like concrete. This street food wasn't cheap. The lamb ... read more

WINDMILL CAMP. SUNDAY 15.6.14 111kms Brilliant blue sky, cloudless morning, finally. 32C forecast high. Last days of the HEXI Corridor. Now entering Barbarian Country! Scenery of high plateau bordered both sides by mountain ranges. As we are above the tree line, mountains are barren, giving very definitive shape to the rock formations. Mountains on the left are snow capped. Morning air is fresh. Today the site was 111 Kms from JIA YU GUAN. Before lunch route was uneventful, although came upon an amazing religious complex comprising seemingly a Buddhist Temple and a Muslim mosque and school, dubious I know, but the picture confirms it! Lunch was shortly afterwards. Much roadwork followed, roads were bumpy and sandy, certainly uncomfortable for cyclists! It was interesting being in the tour leader's truck as he was putting tape markers out ... read more

Geo: 40.15, 94.68Mingsha Hill which is known as one of the 8 Great Landscapes” of Dunhuang. It's also known as the Singing Sand Dunes.Supposedly a war between two armies ended here and the troops where buried by strong winds and their cries still echo from the mountains.From far away the looked huge and almost like they had been man made.The fine edge of the dunes seemed so fine like it had been cut like a knife with great precision but in actual fact when you got closer to the edge, it was about one meter wide and you could see all of the peoples footsteps.We jumped onto camels and we started our trek into the sand dunes. The camels all had there bell and a pretty carpet on their back with a very odd wooden saddle. ... read more

While looking for places to visit around Urumqi, the place that struck me most was the Mogao caves near Dunhuang. Although mentioned as a 2 to 3 day trip, I figured if we go by the overnight train we should have the good part of one day enough to be able to see the caves. One image of a 9 tiered pagoda embedded in a cliff was enough to make me want to go there. We reached Liu yuan at 7 am, the station seemed small and the weather outside was cool. After 'Unexpected Urumqi', I'd almost forgotten why I'd booked these tickets-to come all the way here. Looking at the available options for a ride to Dunhuang, we took the most inexpensive and fast option, a minibus. So, after a five hour plane journey across ... read more

Pour ma 2e journée à Dunhuang je me suis rendu dans le désert en direction du nord-ouest pour aller visiter la région de Yadan ou gisent des monticules de roche sablonneuse qui datent de … millions d’annees ? Cette région se trouvait alors sous l’eau et les sédiments ont formé des blocs compacts que le vent et l’érosion ont sculptés avec le temps. Imaginez un désert de sable gris, tout plat, recouvert de minuscules cailloux bleus et marron d’où émergent de gigantesques monticules jaunes. Le tout sous un ciel bleu a l’infini d’où provient une lumière blanche aveuglante, et vous avez Yadan. Le site se trouve à 180km de Dunhuang et au beau milieu du désert, c’est pourquoi il m’était impossible d’y aller en vélo. Je n’ai pas l’habitude de voyager en groupe organisé mais c’était ... read more