Departed from JiaYuGuan in dawn, I was travelling in Gobi Desert towards YuLin Grottoes. Thoughout the coach journey, I made stops at QiaoWan in the nowhere of Gobi and had a lunch at Anxi, a county also known as GuaZhuo. Travelling about 70km south of Anxi, I reached the cliffs of the gorge where YuLin Grottoes situated. 41 caves of YuLin Grottoes housed exquisite murals and Buddhist statues, covering 1000 sq meters.

Desert in QiaoWan

YuLin Grottoes

DunHuang served a hub of transportation on the Silk Road and a centre of political, economic and cultural exchanges between the east and west through ages. After deposited luggage in the hotel at DunHuang City, I proceeded to Humming Sandy Mountain(MingSha Mountain) and Cresent Moon Spring. The mountain was an immense sand dune, emitting a humming sound at the mere touch of a foot. The spring turned out to be limpid pond in a shape of crescent moon. I rode a camel to the spring, then climb up exhaustively to one sand dune top for a sand slide. It was really a memorable experience.

In the morning, my destination was the famous Mogao Grottoes, 25km SE of DunHuang. It possessed the world largest collection of Buddhist scultures and paintings in the 492 preserved caves, containing 2415 statues and 45000 sq meteres of murals.

Nine-Stories Chamber at MoGao Grottoes

I spent one hot afternoon at DunHuang Musuem and shopped around DunHuang city (See my sketch of the flying celestical statue found in the city). Next, I hurriedly to rush to LiuYuan to catch a train. After bidding farewell to the tour guide and driver of GanSu, I boarded the night train to XinJiang province.

Train Station at LiuYuan