Silk roads and sand dunes

By Bea
30/04/2019-03/05/2019
Despite the lack of lamb!! the overnight train trip from Xian was pretty uneventful. This time we took the ‘hard sleeper’ a train carriage full of 3 layered bunk beds, 6 to a compartment (no doors) so it was noisier than other overnighters so sleep was hard to catch and to make it worse we were the first compartment right beside the door where the smokers were standing... so many people in China smoke, ugh!

The change in landscape overnight was dramatic, night fell over lush farmlands and forested hills, dawn rose over sand, gravel and wind farms.

After 22 long hours the train pulled into Dunhuang in the early morning. After a short bus ride into town and some confusion on the exact location of the hotel (as it is starting to be a common theme that the location on booking.com map is not exactly correct!)... we checked into the, very well located, Xing Xin business hotel, we had taken the 24hour room option not the hourly rate!

Dunhuang is an oasis town on the edge of the Taklamakan desert and adjoining the Gobi desert.
It was, until the 6th century, the final outpost of Chinese territory for caravans on their long Silk Road journeys to India, Parthia and the Roman Empire and one of the most important crossroads of the southern Silk Road and the main road between India and Mongolia.

Dunhuang’s incredibly long history as a trading town where diverse cultures intertwined could not be better highlighted than at the Mogao Grottoes where we headed in the afternoon. Situated in the Gobi desert the first caves were dug out in AD 366 as places of Buddhist meditation and worship. It reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) with 492 caves, 18 monasteries and more than 1400 monks and nuns. It is considered to be one of the most important collections of Buddhist art in the world.

It is an incredible sight, the sandstone cliff face span a vast distance housing the caves that range in sizes from small recesses to vast multi level temples. The complex is very well run and you can only visit with a guide. (They had set tour times to accommodate English speaking tourists also). To protect the art work and carvings inside, they open only a small number of the caves each day and constantly rotate them, so if you go back for another visit later, you should get to see a different set of caves. Each cave houses a shrine, with elaborate carvings and wall paintings. Quite spectacular.

One advantage of China being a single time zone is that out west the sun sets late so we had time, that evening, to check out the Singing Sand Dunes and the famous ‘Moon Crescent Lake’ (thought to be over 2000 years old) located on the edge of town and try for some nice sunset photos. The place was heaving with visitors and the dunes were just covered with people who had trekked up for the sunset or playing around on the sand sleds. I’ve never seen so many camels, there were lines as far as the eye could see, all taking people on short 15 min ‘joy rides’. This was not the desert I was expecting. More people than sand.

We opted out of clambering up the dune and went down to the edge of the Crescent Lake to wait for the sun to set choosing a spot where we could attempt to minimise the people in the photos.

We had read of a luxury hotel close to the dunes that had a ‘superb’ roof top bar with views of the desert so with the sun set we headed there for a G&T with a view, hmmm China is still struggling with ‘superb and luxury’ especially this far west.

At 7.00am the following morning we joined a small van of local tourists to visit Yadan National Park, Jade Gate Pass and Hechang Cheng. The commentary was in Chinese however the driver came to me and typed into translate that I was welcome to ask him anything! The tour guide herself had a little English and didn’t prattle on much so was bearable! They were both very helpful despite the language barrier.

The first stop, just outside the city, on the edge of the desert, was a movie set that had apparently been in several famous Chinese movies... needless to say we just hung around whilst our group went in to take photos and recall each scene of every movie. The journey continued further into the Gobi Desert to Jade Gate Pass (Yumenguan pass) named for the many jade caravans that passed through it. This was originally a military station and still has part of the Great Wall, slowly crumbling and eroding away.

What I did learn is that the Great Wall, because of its enormous size, is not a Great Wall but in fact a series of great walls that vary in date and construction along the entire length. Obviously each region and dynasty built their walls using the materials and techniques appropriate to the area. In the Dunhuang this meant the walls were built in an adobe style of a clay, sand and rubble with bush and tree branches as reinforcing.

I must admit that this “Great Wall’ was not the one of my imagination but was pretty impressive especially when you learn that this, and the ruins of Hecheng Cheng wall a little down the road, were part of the original wall erected by Emperor Wudi around 121 BCE.

We continued our long drive deeper into the Gobi Desert and our final destination, Yadan National GeoPark, a surreal and weirdly eroded landscape whose geomorphic formations looked more like a scene out of Star Wars with massive lines of fighter ships. Yeah, a strange description I know... but just these massive mounds of earth protruding from the ground looked more like space craft. The ground was strangely covered in a black gravel, as if someone had spread it around the monoliths for effect, then you notice that the entire desert landscape is covered in this gravel.

We finally arrived back at 7.00pm and headed to the night markets to find some dinner. We sat at an outdoor table munched on a few lamb kebabs, downed a few cold beers and watched the throngs of visitors being harassed by the local vendors, desperate for customers.

The next day we explored Dunhuang town, visited its river front and ate its specialty noodles with donkey meat. In the afternoon headed off for a camel trek and overnight desert camping trip and were joined young couple from France. We were driven to the edge of the desert to meet our local guide and his 5 camels that were already loaded with our tents, sleeping bags, food and what looked like a comfortable seat! Let’s just say, the way the camel walked and that seat... sitting down the next day was a little uncomfortable!

We were assigned certain camels, Pete was on the lead camel, followed by me and then the other couple. The guide was going to lead our train on foot. He took off with Pete in tow... unfortunately someone forgot to tie my camel to Pete’s the three of us were left sitting on our camels whilst Pete and the guide wandered off! We were soon all tied up together and set off on our adventure. The trek started through a cemetery which was a little weird but soon reached the sand dunes and our train slowly plodded up and down the dunes, stopping occasionally for a few pics along. Now this was what I thought the desert was going to like. No one in sight! Just gorgeous mounds of golden sand as far as I could see.

We came to our overnight stop. Obviously this guide does these trips regularly so he has a rough makeshift cache consisting of a table (board on top of wine bottle legs), some extra sand bags to hold the tents down and a cast iron kettle. Nearby on another dune was a small log that he tied the lead camel to stop them from wandering away during the night. We dismounted and my camel instantly stretched his neck out and laid down... I thought I had killed him!! (But Pete’s soon did the same).

The guide then (in sign language - no English spoken) signalled he would take us up on foot to the top of the highest dune for the views. It was a tough walk, the sand was soft and kept disappearing under your feet and they were steep dunes. We were walking along the sharp edge of the peaks of the dunes. It was a magnificent sight. He presented a bag of apples and told us to stay and wait for sunset and photos whilst he went and set up our tents and lit the fire. It was a peaceful way to end the day.

The sun set and we could see the guide way below us had now set up camp, so we headed down. Pete decided to follow the guides “short cut” route he had taken, straight down the very steep dune. (The 2 Frenchies, opted out and took the path we had taken up)

I followed Pete albeit at a much slower pace! Pete barrelled down the first half of the Dune before catching a toe, recovering catching again then executing a beautiful triple summersault, reverse twist with pike before nailing a full face-plant landing (Alanah would have been proud of her uncle’s Epic Fail). No injuries... but let’s just say sand is still coming out of his day pack! (I have to admit it was a funny sight... once I realised there were no injuries to him or the camera!)

We prepared ourselves well and brought along a bottle of red wine for the evening. It was actually ok for the price. We opened our wine and shared it with our companions, whilst our guide cooked up a lovely campsite meal.... instant noodle bowls with some added extra veggies! (This is a staple meal in China and perfect for camping). He also provided bread rolls and fruit.

The temperature was dropping and it was great to put on the jacket and feel cold again. We sat back and admired the vast sky of bright stars!!! I even saw a shooting star. Perfect finish to a great day.

The tents were very basic and we were sleeping on an extra sleeping bag, so I had a few problems as my hips don’t take to hard surfaces. We had some heavy winds during the night and it was not the most pleasant of sleeps. Early the next morning, I poked my head out to find that there were only 2 camels and the guide’s tent was gone. The other tent was still up but no one inside. Quite a disconcerting feeling, being left alone in the desert! I had heard a conversation the night before that the French couple had to go back early in order for them to take another tour, but I thought that meant all of us leaving early. I hoped the guide intended to come back for us. His camels are pretty valuable to him, so I was sure he would.

About an hour and half later, after we got up and started to pack up our tents, we saw the guide riding his camel with the other camels in tow back to our camp.

After a simple breakfast of 3 in 1 coffee, left over bread rolls and fruit, the three of us mounted our camels and trekked back to our starting point.

A long, hot shower was a welcome relief when we got back to our hotel. We checked out at midday and headed to the train station for our next destination... Jiayuguan.