Dunhuang - Desert Oasis

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After a quite pleasant and normal 5 hour bus ride we arrived in the desert town of Dunhuang. The trip from Jiauyugaun was spectacular as we had the front seats of the bus and an unobstructed view of the expansive mountains and desert sands in front, the further west we drove the hotter it got outside and by the end the whole road was pretty much a mirage.

Our guesthouse was 10 minutes out of town at the very base of the giant sand dunes for which Dunhuang is famed. Nested amongst the trees we had our own little log cabin with a verandah and hammocks outside and we could hear the camels not far away waiting to take people up the dunes.

On our first evening we went the short distance into town which actually took a very long time as despite it being a dead straight four lane road every taxi driver insists on driving no faster than 40km/hr, it wasn’t until our last day we found out the road is full of speed cameras when our very funny taxi driver kept swerving of the road because his meter was broken and he wasn’t sure how fast he was going. The small town was surprisingly very tourist friendly, with lots of English sign posting we made our way to the night market for a kebab dinner. For the first time in the whole trip we were presented with an English menu and enjoyed a yummy dinner sitting on deck chairs and looking at the stars above.

The following morning we had hoped to get up super early to head over to the sand dunes before the tour bus crowd, however after a restless sleep because we were so so cold a sleep in ensued. We eventually wondered down the road and bought our very expensive tickets into the dunes (and our sexy bright orange gaiters) it was so hot by this stage we refused to walk anywhere so followed the rest of the tourists onto camels for the 30min trip up the dunes. But they didn’t quite take us to the peak and we had to pay more money for the privilege of climbing a steep ladder to the summit. The view was amazing, on one side the small town surrounded by green, on all other sides sand as far as you could see. The rest of our day was spent relaxing in hammocks before it was cool enough to heap back into town to look at the markets.

For our second full day in Dunhuang we visited Mogao Caves, the first known Buddhist temples within the Chinese Empire. Originally over a thousand caves carved into the cliffs in 366AD with over 600 surviving but only 30 accessible to the public. From the murals, statues, manuscripts and artworks in the caves the history of Buddhism in China can be traced from its original form bought over from India to the recognisable Chinese Buddhism practiced today. It is a requirement to have a guide during your visit and we were lucky enough to have a very informative and passionate English speaking guide who obviously cared a lot about the preservation of this national heritage site, it was quite funny to see our little Chinese lady yelling at big groups of Chinese men to turn off their cameras as photography was forbidden. Of the 10 caves we were able to visit the most impressive contained the 3rd largest Buddha statue in the world with every surface of the cave covered in intricate paintings. Sadly many of the murals have been destroyed either through vandalism (various ethnic groups over time have scratched the eyes from all the Buddha pictures in some caves) or natural degradation (which is also sped up by carbon-monoxide released by all the visitors) and the library of manuscripts and Buddhists texts has been looted and sold over the years to international explorers, many of the pieces can now be find in London museums and Harvard university.

After a very relaxing 2 and half days in Dunhuang we both agree this has been the best place so far. With more cafes than Beijing, a lovely night market, bearable temperature and friendly people Dunhuang is an easy tourist destination while still being off-the-beaten track enough for it to not be ruined by commercialism.

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