A small oasis city, Dunhuang once prospered as the last stop on the Silk Road before it split north and south to skirt the Taklamakan Desert. It is a pleasant settlement that has achieved a certain level of prosperity, primarily through acting as a base for visiting the famous grottoes at Mogao, a short distance away. The city caters for its foreign visitors and has several restaurants and budget hotels. The only items of interest at the Dunhuang County Museum (Xian Bowuguan) are a few Chinese and Tibetan manuscripts, from Mogao’s famous Cave 17, which escaped the looting of explorers and archeologists. The museum also has examples of traditional silks and domestic items found near the beacon towers that were once part of China’s outermost line of defense. There is a souvenir night market every summer evening along the city’s main thoroughfare, Dong Dajie. The range of items on sale includes leather shadow puppets, Chinese scroll paintings, jade items, coins, Tibetan horns, and Buddha statues.

Just 5 km south of Dunhuang is Yueya Quan (Crescent Moon Lake), a small freshwater lake that has been a vital source of water here for thousands of years. It lies adjacent to the Mingsha Shan (Singing Sand Mountains), which tower several hundred feet high. The dunes were named after the noise made as the grains of sand are crunched under foot. For some remarkable views, visitors can climb the dunes – preferably in the cool of the evening. There is also a range of activities, including paragliding, sand tobogganing, and camel rides. A small folk art museum lies nearby. Situated in the middle of fields about 4 km west of Dunhuang is the nine-story Baima Ta (White Horse Pagoda). This Tibetanstyle dagoba was built in memory of a horse belonging to the monk, Kumarajiva, who came from the Silk Road kingdom of Kuqa. The horse died here in AD 384

The Cave Paintings of Dunhuang are protected by their relative isolation, the cave paintings at Dunhuang form the most fascinating repository of Buddhist art in China. For over 700 years, between the 4th and 11th centuries AD, Buddhist monks excavated and painted these caves, until invasion and the encroachment of Islam brought work to a halt. The paintings were all but forgotten until 1907, when the explorer Sir Aurel Stein stumbled across the caves and the Daoist priest who guarded them, Wang Yuanlu. Among the many thousands of items uncovered by Stein is the Diamond Sutra, the world’s earliest printed book (in scroll form), and many of the patterns used by the monks to reproduce paintings at will.

The Mogao Caves were dug into cliffs that rise out of an otherwise largely flat and featureless desert landscape. Getting there is relatively easy, if you are travelling independently, as Dunhuang is crawling with minibuses. As usual they wait until every seat is taken before setting off, but the half-hour journey is cheap. Remember that the caves are closed between 11:30am and 2:30pm.

Of the six hundred surviving caves, only about thirty are open to the public. The entrance fee includes a Chinese-speaking guide, although it is worthwhile, for an additional fee, engaging an English-speaking guide, as the tour party is likely to be smaller and the choice of caves less rigidly laid down. The guides are generally fairly knowledgeable about the history of the caves and the paintings and sculptures within. You are, however, recommended to take your own flashlight and to remember that photography is not allowed in the caves (without a very expensive permit), a rule that is strenuously enforced. The standard tour lasts half a day, and includes about fifteen of the caves as well as the museum, which exhibits some of the scrolls found here. It is also worth visiting the Research and Exhibition Center, where seven of the caves have been reproduced, permitting far closer scrutiny of the paintings than is possible in the original caves, albeit without the same atmosphere of antiquity. There is a simple guesthouse for those wishing to stay overnight; otherwise, the return journey to Dunhuang is by minibus, the last one leaving around 6pm.