Mogao Caves

Trip Start Jun 11, 2005
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Trip End Dec 22, 2005


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Flag of China  ,
Monday, July 25, 2005

The Mogao caves are one of the highlights of china. However before we could experience their delights we had a rather trying day trying to book onward travel to our next destination. We had planned to go to Xian by train. However we struggled to find the train booking office and when we did, it was chaotic and after much struggling with Chinese it was full. We then decided to fly but were astounded to find it was a lot more expensive than we thought (over GBP 100). We finally bit the bullet otherwise we would never get to see the caves!!

Unfortunately you can't take photos at the caves so you'll have to go to the website at: http://www.dunhuangcaves.com.

Of the original 1000 or more caves more than 600 survive. They were established in 366 AD and grew to become one of the most important buddhist centres due to their location on the silk route. Only 30 caves are open to the public to prevent further deterioration with each group seeing up to 10. Our guide selected 8 very different caves covering a wide variety of different dynasties and styles. 2 of them contained some of the largest buddhas in the world at 34m and 45m. The caves contain a mixture of statues and cave painting.

We felt a lot more chilled after a very enjoyable afternoon (despite the thousands of noisy chinese tourists) and agree it is an amazing site.

For dinner we experienced our 1st chinese night market and had a selection of interesting dishes including buns stuffed with beansprouts, hand made noodles a bit like gnocci and a pitta bread like pork roll.
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