Golden Leaf Hotel (Jinye) Dunhuang

... day at the famous Mogao Grottoes.

These ancient Buddhist shrines contain some of the finest examples of Buddhist art spanning 1000 years. Known as the Thousand Buddha Caves, the site was first carved out in 366AD with more caves being carved out of the cliffs until the 14th century.

Many of the shrines were paid for by travellers on the Silk Road, about to face the dangers of the ...

Dunhuang was our next stop along the Silk Road. It was a desert town where you could literately see huge sand dunes at the end of some of the roads. Our purpose there was to visit the Mogao Caves and although the caves that we saw were pretty impressive it was a bit of a disappointment. The caves were run in true Chinese tourist style. We had to have a guided tour, we could not take our cameras in and we ...

After Qinghai we left for the Gobi Desert and the city of Jiayuguan. Our first stop was Jiayuguan Fortress which is at the very end of the Great Wall. It acted as a border check station for any travelers going into or out of China. It was also attacked a few times by invaders. And they had all sorts of dangerous activities for us to try!! Refer to pictures for details.

Jiayuguan as a city though sucked. It was a pretty big city, but it was like there weren't enough ...

We spent an uneventful night in another faceless Chinese Hotel eating great food from local restaurants. Note to anyone wanting to lose weight, try a total chinese diet, it works. The morning dawned bright and clear and we set off to one of the major focal points of this part of the trip. The Mogao Caves.

Finally a tourist stop for the Tombies. Simply put this is one of the greatest deposits of Buddhist art in the world. As ...

Des nouvelles depuis Dunhuang au coeur du desert de Gobi! Ici il fait tres chaud mais l'air tres sec et on transpire a la vitesse de la lumiere, c'est ridicule!

Les dunes commencent a 1km au sud de la ville, on les voit depuis la rue principale et elles sont d'une immensité titanesque, du moins comparativement a ce que j'ai vu au Maroc. Le Mont Royal a côté, c'est une blague. Ce sont vraiment immenses comme des ...

... benefit from the financial crisis, but we’ll take it!

There are no cameras allowed inside so you’ll have to google to get the images from the Mogao Caves. Also en.wikipedia.org/Dunhuang These caves can be massive and with only sunlight filtering in from the front door and lighting the ancient statues and wall paintings, the entire place feels mysterious. The statues carved during those eras are much more lively ...

Dunhunag es un petit enclavament alla on es troben el Gobi i el Taklamakan, dos deserts il lustres, un petit show de Trumann en versio xina, moderna i urbana; es a dir, un escenari perfectament dissenyat per fer les delicies dels nous ciutadans de l imperi consumnista. Dunhuang s ofereix com una joguina nova de trinca, amb carrers comercials, nets i ben urbanitzats, on els turistes (99% xinos), despres de les visites obligades, poden jugar ...

... his own sons. This apricot in Dunhuang must have some relations with him, so was called "Li Guang Apricot", just as the Jiuquan(means "Wine Spring") City gains its name from another ingenious young general Huoqubing, who lived the same time as General Li, while, died only 24 years old, only leaving an unrivaled record in all following generations for his young and genius. I's another story, maybe I'll tell it ...

... The wind really began to pick up and with the sand proliferating and the intensity of the wind growing stronger it took all four of us on our hands and knees to hold down the tent and prevent it from being blown away or torn to pieces. With a good group effort we managed to erect the tents then anchor them down with a lot of sand in bags. We tried to walk to the top of a near by dune to catch the last bit of sunset ...

... a un petit lac apres les premieres dunes qui font jusqu a 1700 m de haut formant un joli site. Malheureusement, il faut payer un droit d entree pour jouir ca de pres. On continue donc notre route jusqu a ce que les barrieres s arretent pour monter sur les dunes. Du haut de celle ci, on apercoit bien le petit lac et la verdure environnante. On s en va le soir meme par train de nuit jusqu a Urumqi pour y etre le lundi matin et demander le visa Kirgiz.