China 04/24 – Dunhuang
Such was my fascination with the Legendary Dunhuang ride, we took a day out from parks to go and visit the actual Dunhuang for some general sightseeing, another few hours further out into nowhere by train.

In a welcome change from the endless high rises and chain hotels that punctuate the average Chinese city, we had no option to stay somewhere such as this quaint inn.

It’s China, but not as we know it.
Day 10 – Dunhuang
The staff were really friendly and arranged a driver for us out to the Mogao Caves the next morning. Catch was, upon arrival at the ticket windows, sightseeing and culture had ‘sold out’. You HAVE to take a coach to get into the compound because it’s all barricaded off because people are stupid, and you HAVE to use a massive tour group ticket for exploring inside the caves to get on the coach. So you can’t even just go outside and take pictures.
Good thing we have Google isn’t it.

Not my photo.
This was ‘offpeak season’ and both the driver and the hotel were shocked and confused that we couldn’t get in. They told us like ten times not to take any lighters into the caves because they’re banned, but not once had it been necessary for them to ask ‘have you got a ticket?’
Therefore the ride was better than the real thing.

Oh well, something there isn’t a ride for is the desert literally on the edge of town.

You have to pay to get this far, but it wasn’t sold out. Because you can’t sell out a desert.

Once inside there’s all sorts of activities you can get up to. The first and most recommended is renting shoe covers, which were like giant luminous socks up to your knees to stop the sand being coarse and rough and irritating and getting everywhere.

As seen here on the right.
Camels are also a thing.

About a km into the desert is the Crescent Moon Spring, which you can take a big golf buggy to, though it only drops you off around halfway and you have to trudge your way the rest of the distance – surprisingly tough going in soft sand.

I’ll let the pictures do the talking for a bit.




Tourism is overrated, but if you have to put up with it, this was my kinda jam.

On the walk back I decided to be brave and scale this dune, to see what was on the other side.
It’s an intense climb, all you have is this tiny rope ladder with wooden slats, disappearing into the sand, to give you any semblance of sure footing. The incline is pretty hefty in the dry, blazing heat and I had a guy keeping pace in front of me who was literally collapsing, breathing heavily and barely crawling his way up for the most part. So that made it easier.

What you don’t see here is that about half way, I looked back and saw a thousand school children in the same hat all clambering up behind us like a scene from a horror film. It was time to circumnavigate the guy, at my own peril.
Also I guess they’re just building a road straight to the oasis, so it looks pretty bad right now.

At the top, of course, was just more sand.

I’m probably now on someone’s mantlepiece because to all the thousand school children up here, the foreigner was far more interesting than the view and they all wanted to say hello and have a picture with me.
I believe this sort of thing was a lot more common just anywhere 10-20 years ago, but you have go somewhere real obscure now to garner the same reaction. Thankfully.
Coming back down was fun, you can just freestyle away from the ladder, almost gliding with huge strides that take you knee deep into the side of the dune. Shoe covers were a life saver.
Then we had a culturally appropriate on-site KFC and called it a day.