Singing Sand Dunes

Day 5: Dunhuang (Singing Sand Dunes)

Day 6: Dunhuang (Mogao Caves, overnight stay in the Gobi Desert)

Evening of Day 4, we headed out from Turpan (in Xinjiang Province) to Dunhuang (Gansu Province). Both Turpan and Dunhuang are must-see places on the Silk Road circuit, but linking up these two towns was a stressful travel experience. If you're going to attempt this same leg, here are a couple of words from the wise:

1. You'd think that China has a huge train network that allows you to pick any permutation of stops. You're wrong. Especially in the Western region, there's really just one main railroad that's like an aorta, and you get on/off at the closest town to your ultimate destination... usually a 3 hour drive away. So even though people say that Turpan has its own train station, what they really mean is that it's "only" a 1 hour drive from the ACTUAL town with the station (some sketchy bumblef*ck place). Same deal with Dunhuang, which is one of the most famous historical towns in China -- only recently did it get its own new train station, but it doesn't link up to the "Turpan station", so we actually arrived in another town at around 5am and then got into a taxi for 2-3 hours. Painful.

2. We had a "mule" bring our tickets from Urumqi to Turpan (3 hour ride), where we picked up our tickets at the station. It was literally like the passing of the Olympic Torch. It was so stressful because I had to communicate with the mule via SMS the whole time as to precisely which train, which train car, what time, etc... and position ourselves so that we were at the right spot to collect the tickets from him when he got off the train, and then hop on the train ourselves. This all seems way too complicated and unnecessary, doesn't it? Well, apparently because Turpan is not the first stop of the "railroad aorta", it's almost impossible to book a overnight ticket for our leg of the trip (we were traveling during National Week). Then you'll ask why can't we just buy the tickets for Urumqi to Dunhuang, and then just get on at Turpan? Because the railroad company will resell your tickets if you don't get on the train at the designated departure station. Yes, you lose your spot. So now you know why we had to pay for a train mule. So much could have gone wrong, folks... but we made it. :)

3. Overnight trains are not a bad deal. Highly recommended -- they've banned smoking and spitting now, even in the hard sleeper section.

On our way to the "Turpan train station".

An 8 hour overnight ride, where Gene and I experienced a horrible gastrointestinal thrashing. Marge and Rob were right about that sketchy looking lamb. :(

We arrived at Dunhuang at 5am the next morning and hopped onto a taxi, which ended up being a 2 hour death ride through the Gansu plains. It was completely pitch black, the road had no lights, it was literally a straight line, and we were probably driving at 175km an hour or however fast that tin-can could possibly go. Gene was riding shotgun so he was trying to make sure the driver stayed awake (would you be able to keep your eyes open if you were driving in the dark on a straight line???). Oh, and 5am in Western China is really like 2am, because Beijing keeps all the provinces in the same time zone. At some point I was so tired that I let myself pass out, rationalizing that if I was going to die in the hands of Mr. Speed Racer, I might as well not see it coming. We made it though, and staggered through the doors of our very decent 3 star hotel.

We decided to give ourselves a break for the first half of the day, catching up on sleep and taking long hot showers. I realized later that the difference between a 2 and 3 star hotel in China is whether or not they have 24-hour hot water available. So very key!

Later that day when we got all refreshed, we rented bikes and rode towards Crescent Moon Spring (月牙泉) and the Singing Sand Dunes (鳴沙山), where you can pretend to be Prince of Persia, go sand-sledding, and even practice your bow-hunting skillz. We also had these neon orange booties strapped to our legs so sand wouldn't run into our shoes.

Riding a camel while talking on a cellphone. The man takes it to a new level!

What do you think these Chinese say when they're going through their vacation photos?

"Oh, and this is a Laowai (老外)! Yea, Dunhuang was great."

It was really really tough getting up the sand dunes.

Something like 1 step up, 0.95 steps down with the 45+ degree incline.

People who made it to the ridge of the sand dune (not us).

This is when I realized that Rob has superhero thighs and supermodel poses.

... the stuff you see in comics but never think you'd see in real life.

We all took a couple rounds on the archery range -- it's really really fun!! I also got to live out my Night Elf Hunter dreams, hahaha... ^_^

Not surprisingly, some retardo Chinese think it's okay to step behind the archery range when a bunch of noobs (us) are releasing sharp high-speed projectiles in the air. I swear it's because of China's high population density that people behave like lemmings.

I was the slowest tobogganer ever. :(

Sunset on the sand dunes.

The next day we went to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Mogao Caves (莫高窟), which is an elaborate cave system of temples (492 of them) that showcase some of the finest Buddhist art that you'll find in the entire world. The first cave was constructed by a Buddhist monk around 400AD when he was travelling along the Silk Road and saw the silhouette of two "sleeping Buddhas" along the hills as the sun was setting. Inspired, he went to those hills and dug out a cave, commemorating his vision through art. Gradually, more and more monks created their own caves. Some of the bigger temples were commissioned by the royal family and wealthy merchants, similar to how art was patronized in the West.

If if you ever play charades with Gene, this is a "pagoda".

The green flag in front of the cave indicates that it's open that day.

The Mogao Caves only open 15 caves per day for minimum exposure and maximum preservation. 15 caves doesn't seem like much considering that there are over 400 caves available, but you'll be able to see an impressive variety of styles and themes.

Photography is prohibited (and vigilantly enforced), but I managed to sneak a photo in anyway because I'm a ninja. Wha-pow!

This isn't one of the best caves that we saw, but it's Sakyamuni Buddha's "court" (Tang Dynasty).

I didn't get to see this specific cave, but this is what they generally look like.

Mogao Caves was seriously the most culturally impressive part of the entire Silk Road trip. You'll see a lot of Buddhist art in Asia and there'll be a lot of recurring themes that get boring after awhile, but what makes Mogao Caves extremely special is the wide range of dyanstic styles. We saw caves that were created from the Sui, Tang (lots of that actually), Wei, and even Qing (they did a lot of touch-ups to the old caves). The figures of the sculptures, the patterns, the beams and actual shape of the ceiling, the type of material used... all of these were very different. It was amazing to see a such a diverse collection of artwork of similar theme in caves (not museums)! Okay, I don't know whether I'm doing a good job selling this place, but if you're on the Silk Road then you must make a stop at the Mogao Caves. If you can't understand Chinese very well, I recommend timing your trip so you can arrange for an English tour guide because otherwise a lot of interesting information might go over your head.

Oxidized flying asparas (飛天), aka pretty half-nekkid celestials.

Oxidation happens when light hits the paint, which is why no photography is allowed.

Also about the photo-taking thing -- I was a bad girl and sneaked one in at the very beginning, but there's a very valid reason why they're not allowed. The paint that is used in the Mogao Caves is mixed with certain metals that oxidize, so they'll gradually darken and turn black when exposed to light. Because these artwork are in caves, they're generally very well preserved, but you'll see that figures painted in the areas closer to the doors look drastically different than the ones deeper inside. For example, in one cave I thought that the images looked similar to African tribal art (just like the picture above), until the tour guide showed us the figures towards the back and oh my... I couldn't believe my eyes... so beautiful *stars streaming out of my eyes*. Of course if you're not using a flash while taking photos (like me) theoretically it should be fine, but you can't ensure that everyone will turn off their flash. That's why "no photography" blanket rules exist. I finally understand now -- so please follow the rules when you go to historical sites. They're there for a reason and we should try to preserve these cultural items for generations to come! :)

Next time, our overnight stay in the Gobi Desert!