Silk Road Souveniers

I left Turpan the next evening and took an overnight bus to Dunhuang (敦煌), which meant I was now leaving the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang and entering Gansu province. Again we stopped on the way for a chance to grab some food in some remote place and as usual, the foreigner attracted plenty of attention. This time while standing outside some cafes, I was brought a seat and told in English to "sit down please" another phrase many Chinese seem to know and later was dragged to a shop where I had previously bought some cake and drinks to help one of the girls with her English studies. She wanted to understand a few new words and as usual I had to tell them many, many times my name and telephone number. During the little class a big group of observers gathered round watching and listening curiously, all nice fun.

On the way the bus passed through Hami, another stop on the Silk Road. I had been tempted to stop off here for some home comforts as according to Marco Polo:

"I give you my word that if a stranger comes to a house here to
seek hospitality he receives a very warm welcome. The host bids his wife do
everything that the guest wishes. Then he leaves the house and goes about his
own business and stays away two or three days. Meanwhile the guest stays with
his wife in the house and does whatever he will with her, lying with her in one
bed just as if she were his own wife and they live a gay life
together."

But apparently this tradition is not so common these day, so I went straight through to Dunhuang.

I immediately liked Dunhuang more than any other place I had been recently, the streets were pretty quiet, there was a distinct lack motor horns that had been present in other places throughout Xinjiang, it seemed cleaner and the air clearer too. It felt a nice relaxed place to spend a few days, so I ended up staying 4 or 5 nights here, seeing a few sites and just enjoying good Chinese cafes of which many on the main street had English menus. I also bumped into two other travellers, a German and a Japanese both of whom I had shared a dorm room with back in Kashgar. I had left Kashgar before them but had spent more time on a longer route getting here, it was nice to see them again as they were the first English speakers I had met since leaving Kashgar.

First trip was to Mogao caves (莫高窟, Mogao ku), I caught a bus early in the morning in a freezing cold Dunhuang, with a Korean guy and lots of Chinese, it took around 30 minutes to get there and then had about 2 and a half hours looking around the caves. The earliest of the Buddhist Temples of Mogao were built in the fourth century and span through one thousand years to the fourteenth century when they were a centre of culture on the Silk Road. There are supposedly over six hundred caves in total - of which only around thirty are open to the public - containing Buddhist sculptures and Chinese art from the fourth and fifth century Northern Wei dynasty and subsequent Sui, Tang, Five, Song and Western Xia dynasties. Some time during the fourteenth century, Yuan dynasty. the caves were sealed and abandoned until discovered again by Wang Yuan Lu in 1900. As often the case in such sites, cameras were not allowed, but I managed to sneak a couple of photos from the museum exhibition which had some replica caves on display.

Above: Buddhist statue and frescoes from exhibition replica caves at Mogao.

Dunhuang also had some interesting places to visit a little closer to the town, so I hired a bicycle and cycled to the 'White Dragon Dagoba' (白马塔, Baima ta) and later to the 'Singing sand dunes' (明沙山, Mingsha Shan) and 'Crescent Moon Lake' (月牙泉, Yueya Quan). While the dagoba is just a tower to look, Mingsha Shan and the dunes were a bit of an activity centre.

Left: Whits horse dagoba
Right: First full view of Ming Sha Shan

As you approach the dunes you can see them towering above which is a pretty awesome sight especially when you are just about 6km out of a town. At the dunes, the lazy folk can take a camel to one of the peaks, the more adventorous can climb them which is a lot tougher than it looks. Coming down was a lot quicker. It was possible to descend via para glide, toboggan, sliding on your bum, just run down at a furious pace, or, I suppose you could walk too. It was a lot of fun and I wish I had spent a whole day there and had tried a few more descents, maybe another time.

Left: Chinese tourists at top shout encouragement for the final third of the climb.
Right: Most take the lazy option of a camel trek to one of the peaks

At Dunhuang I also bought myself a silk road souvenier, one of those little fluffy camels like in the picture at the top. Would have loved to have got a big size one, but sadly the back pack could not handle it.