jiejie

July 1. Today had been highly anticipated—a visit to the Mogao Caves. After a spot of supermarket-purchased breakfast snacks in my room, I took the receptionist’s instructions and right across from my hotel, caught the first (8:30 am) local bus to the Caves for RMB 8. Unfortunately, it took 30++ minutes, resulting in me being a little late for the start of the 9:00 a.m. daily English tour (other English tours at 12:00 and 14:00). Tip: For the morning tour, don't cheap out with the bus, just take an RMB 30 taxi from town and get there on time! I grabbed a very useful little English guidebook at gift shop on my way to the ticket booth (RMB 180 for English guide), then scuttled over to the opening to see that two other foreigners (Aussie couple) were equally late. The ticket taker quickly got us through and escorted us up to the rest of the group which had 8 people in it. We missed the first cave but managed to pick it up at the end of the tour anyway.

The Caves at Mogao number nearly 500, and were hollowed out and decorated between the 4th and 14th centuries A.D. and spanning 9 dynasties. Not all caves are in good shape, but a remarkable number have survived to various extents. The guide told us that 50 of the caves were open to the public: 40 of them on regular tours and rotated around from tour to tour and week to week. 10 of them special caves which required special admission fees, generally RMB 200 per special cave. None of our group decided to splurge on these and for most standard tourists, probably not worth it. You cannot predict with certainty what caves you will be shown on any given tour/day, though it's a pretty safe bet you'll see one of the huge Buddha Caves and the Library Cave. A few of the caves are kept continuously open during operating hours, but most of the caves that are open to the public still must be unlocked and relocked by the guide accompanying each tour group. So even if you are left to wander inside the restricted area, you'll need to tag onto another group to get a glimpse of different caves.

My expectations of the art were high, but due to what I’d heard about the system at Mogao as well as the crowding, I was prepared for an overall let down. However, perhaps I got lucky, but I had a great experience. Not only did we have a small group, the guide was quite good and didn’t rush at all. I learned quite a bit. And there were not the on-site crowds I’d expected. There were some Chinese tour groups but not too many, and we only crossed paths at a couple of the Big Buddha caves, so were not too affected. And at least at Mogao, the Chinese guides use small microphone transmitters and the group members wear wireless headsets to hear, so there is no bullhorn activity, which cuts down tremendously on the crowd jostling and the ambient noise. The Chinese groups did look quite large (25-30 people per) and their guides definitely looked like they moved faster...but then, most Chinese aren’t necessarily that interested in in-depth coverage of the subject.

Our English tour took a full two hours, and we saw 9 caves from various eras. At the conclusion, our guide let us stay in the fenced controlled area if we wanted, as she left. I managed to see another couple of caves by tagging on to a Chinese then a Japanese group (didn’t understand the commentary on that last one!). Then I left the controlled area for some panoramic shots of the cliff walls, and then for the well-regarded (and free) Exhibition Center. Well worth spending an hour or so in its own right, the Exhibition Center shows historical details of the Caves and the findings, also technical details on how art and images were created, as well as the particular problems of the Caves and conservation efforts to repair and preserve them. And my favorite part--8 caves are recreated exactly. Only one of which was on my tour, so I felt like I got to see more “caves”. Chinese Copydom at its finest and highest use! I spent 1.5 hours at the Center and then managed to catch the public bus at 13:30 back to town, for another 8 RMB. Tip: Take the morning tour if possible, as it's a bit cooler and the lighting on the cliffs is better for photography in the morning.

I felt I had a great experience, far above my expectations, and well worth the money. Headed back to the Oasis Cafe for another big lunch (this time a full large pizza plus fresh-made ice teas). Upon hearing of my frustrating experience at Not Finding the Free way to access the sand dunes yesterday, helpful and Fount-of-Wisdom Owner Kevin told me the secret. Aargh! It was so obvious that I can’t believe I missed it. I resolved to take another bite at this apple later in the day. He also mentioned that within a few years, access to the actual caves was probably going to be completely cut off to the general public in an effort to preserve them, allowing for researchers and pre-approved visitors only. Apparently, a new and more extensive Visitors’ Center is under construction and will contain more re-creations of caves that will be presented to the public instead of the real thing. Tip: My guess is that it will take another 2-3 years to get the interiors done, so a window of opportunity exists to see the real thing for awhile longer. I now feel complete, that I’ve seen Yungang, Longmen, Dazu, and now Mogao. All very different and all worthwhile in their own way, though I’d rank Longmen as a lesser experience versus the other three.

After completion of lunch, again went back to room for a rest and did some internet research. I decided that as part of finding my way back, that I’d go ahead and visit the Matisi cave site outside Zhangye, which meant two nights there, then phoned in a booking request directly to my previous hotel there. Tip: Particularly for smaller independent hotels, always grab and keep a business card; you never know when you may need them again. I also decided that I would definitely avoid Lanzhou and instead take the bus from Zhangye to Xining and end the Silk Road trip there.

At 17:30, I once again set out about 5:30 for the dunes. This time catching an honest taxi driver lady for RMB 10. Armed with a detailed how-to from Kevin, I set out again to find the free walk-in access and avoid that ridiculous entry fee. Once there, I realized my mistake from yesterday (turned too early and down an incorrect path). It’s actually quite easy and only takes about 15 minutes once you know where you are going.
(a) Have taxi or bus drop you off at farthest point they can go on the big boulevard that terminates at the ticket booth/gate.. There will be a barrier in the middle of the road, and a bus lot off to the left. It’s still quite a walk from the actual ticket booth.
(b) Walk a very short distance down the sidewalk, passing a bunch of open air souvenir vendor stalls. There will be a small road right after that, turn left and walk down it. Once you turn, a big construction site with fencing (summer 2012) will be on your right.
(c) Walk all the way down this road (turns to unpaved) until just past a little village. The camel drivers live here and you’ll see their camels “parked” in the village! There will be construction trucks coming up and down the road occasionally heading to a site—this is how you’ll know you’re on the right road.
(d) Immediately after the village, you’ll come to a huge open area (it’s partly a cemetery). Walk diagonally right and you should start to see the dunes and the end point of the fencing. Just find any path (the dirt is pretty hard packed in this area) and get out there.
(e) You should be able to do any climbing you want—there’s small and HUGE dunes right there. You’ll see the camel caravan ride in the distance, and there may be some ATV tourist riders zipping around nearby in their buggies. Nobody should stop you, as long as you don’t trek over to the central area in front of the tourist entry gate, where all the bus group tourists are.

Unfortunately, while the sky/weather was better visibility than yesterday, the wind kicked up a bit and was blowing sand which made it a bit uncomfortable. I thankfully had brought that thick face mask provided by the hotel, and with my glasses, kept my face pretty well protected. But I was getting unpleasantly sandblasted, and also I was worried about sand getting into the camera. If the wind had not been blowing, I would have climbed further and higher, as while the sand was hard work, it was still solid enough underneath to provide decent footing. After about 30 minutes, I was satisfied and started to retrace my steps back to the bus parking lot. Overall, probably less than 1 km of walking to get from bus/taxi lot to the dunes, and well worth it to avoid the tourist trap bits and the 120 RMB fee. I couldn’t tell from my vantage point, but it may be possible with a bit of hiking, to get around from the other side of the dunes to the Crescent Spring (or man-made lake, or whatever the Chinese have done to it!). Taking one’s own toboggan or tray and sliding down the dunes might also be fun. I headed back to Dunhuang by bus about 19:30 pm with sun still pretty high in the sky, a bargain at RMB 1 back to the middle of town. This is a good place to cheap out on transport cost!

I walked around the food court and pedestrian street and surrounding areas but just wasn’t hungry—the heat and the large pizza eaten about 2 pm meant food just wasn’t in the cards. So I settled on going back to the Oasis for more delicious unsweetened ice teas. By serendipity, met that nice Aussie couple from the Mogao Caves tour again and we had a nice chat until 21:00. On the way back to my hotel, I stopped off at a grocery again for breakfast goodies and water, then attempted to wash about a half-ton of sand out of my hair! And my face looked a bit sunburned and sandblasted. Worked on some plans and reservations for Xining before bed. It had been a very enjoyable and fruitful day. Like Zhangye, Dunhuang is actually a rather nice place to relax and just savor the Silk Road. If I’d had the time, I probably could have happily spent another couple of days there.

In retrospect, I wish I had planned the time interval between Xi’an and Kashgar better, and left myself 2-3 days in which to insert Dunhuang on the outbound leg so I could avoid rushing to hit Kashgar by a Sunday. It makes more sense to proceed from Jiayuguan to Dunhuang (bus or train) then from Dunhuang to Turpan, Urumqi, Kashgar, return to Urumqi. Had I done that, I would have just flown from Urumqi to Xining which would have ended up saving me a couple of days off the overall trip.