Hi from Dunhuang! I’ve arrived in Gansu province, my third province of China so far.
We got here this morning after a 23-hour train journey from Xi’an. I did manage a bit more sleep on the train this time, so I was feeling pretty good when I disembarked — especially when I stepped off to find the weather drizzly and blessedly cool. It was only in the mid-teens this morning and never got higher than mid-20s today. I did a little dance for joy when I felt the temperature, since it’s usually stiflingly hot here in August. And yes, it was raining in the desert, which is a strange sight when you’re surrounded by nothing but sand dunes for endless miles.
Life in a small town
Dunhuang is a frontier town in the true sense of the word. Located in the middle of the desert, it used to be the end of the Great Wall and, indeed, of China for a long time; It’s also a “small city” not only by Chinese standards, but by ours as well. With a little over 180,000 people, it was a former oasis town and key stop on the ancient Silk Road trade routes, but today, its economy is largely based on tourism. The town centre is compact, and I’m finally getting a bit of a respite from people, people everywhere.
After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we had a quick walk around the small local market and stopped off for some steamed buns for lunch. Most people had regular meat ones, but Sam tried the donkey ones. Dunhuang is apparently famous for donkey meat. No, I didn’t try any, before you ask.
Giant Buddhas in caves
Then, this afternoon, we went to see some caves. The Mogao Grottoes are perhaps the most famous of the Buddhist grottoes depicting ancient art. There are hundreds of caves, carved into the side of a cliff in the middle of the desert.
The caves, which were man-made in the 5th through 10th centuries, have lots of preserved or restored wall art depicting Buddhas and other religious symbols, but it’s funny how much influence they must have had on many western artists because some of the art looks a lot like Matisse or Chagall or Picasso. They also, most impressively, contain giant sculptures of Buddhas and warriors and demons and other such figures. Some of them are huge — one is over 30 meters high and took 12 years to build.
The Grottoes are listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site, and are under strict protection to the point where the number of tickets are limited. There’s also a no photos policy inside the caves, so I can’t post any of the statues.
We spent a few hours getting a guided tour of the Mogao Grottoes and checking out the art. The tour started with two films, one of which was in an enormous planetarium-like dome. We kept dozing off in the middle of the films since we were all so tired from the train last night. Then we were led around the site and got to see the different grottoes, all numbered like some roadside motel rooms. The art was rather impressive, though I think if I knew more about Buddhism it would have meant more to me.
A night in
For dinner, Howard took us to a nearby restaurant and we feasted yet again on delicious foods that I couldn’t even pronounce, let alone remember.
After dinner, we wanted to check out the market by night, but it was still light out. All of China uses a single time zone, so the sun will rise and set increasingly later the further west we go. To wait out the time until the night market kicked off, we stopped off at the supermarket, bought some drinks, and headed back to the hotel for rounds of cards and games. Of course, once those got underway, they pretty much took over the evening, in true backpacker style. Several cans or bottles of beer, wine and a Chinese rice liquor thing that tasted vaguely like sambucca later, we were still at it with no signs of moving. I decided to call it a night, even though we get a bit of a lie-in tomorrow, in order to finish up this blog post and get some sleep.
More from Dunhuang tomorrow!