Dunhuang Day 8 7th May Dunhuang- Liuyuann- Urumqi Day 7 8th May
7th May
Lily picked us up to take us to the Mogao Grottoes Digital Centre.Another huge building with a long queue.Two movies,one about the background to the creation of Dunhuang and another, a 360 presentation of the caves themselves. Both really well done.In the first one I experienced again the Chinese phenomenon of watching a show whilst talking on the phone-this time it happened next to me :-).
We were then taken by shuttle bus to the caves themselves.The protection of the caves is as befits a UNESCO site.Unfortunately this protection has meant that the caves don’t look great from the outside.They have a conglomerate covering and each cave has a door and temperature control.Of the four hundred and ninety two caves, forty have been restored and open to the public under strictly controlled conditions.
We visited eight caves led by a young man who had been researching them for over a decade.The first created in 366 AD by a travelling monk who reported seeing a vision of a thousand Buddha’s.Caves were then added as well by pilgrims and traders to gain merit and were decorated with various Buddhist motifs.This continued till the fourteenth century when the Silk Road was abandoned in favour of sea routes.The caves were rediscovered by a monk Wang Yuanlu in 1900 who appointed himself as Abbot and guardian.Whilst restoring the caves he found what is known as the Library cave which contained over fifty thousand scrolls and artefacts.Subsequently European archaeologists came to the caves and many of those scrolls and artefacts were sent outside China.
The caves represent an amazing history of art over a 1000 year period. Over that period one can see the development of many different drawing, carving and decorative techniques.The materials used such as gold lapis lazuli, and indigo also differ from cave to cave.
Memory of Cave Highlights (no photos allowed)
• A giant 35 metre Buddha carved into the rock over several floors.
• A reclining Buddha about 15 metres in length.
• A Buddha with glass eyes looking downward so that Buddha would appear to be making eye contact with people praying.
• Walls decorated with 1/2 inch square blocks of gold.
• The 1000 Buddha motif that appeared in most caves.Small buddha drawings repeated over and over.
Great reference sites can be found at:
Site History provided by the Khan Academy
Site Information and individual cave information from the Dunhuang Academy
(The caves we visited were 29,332,17,16,259,249,96 and 148)
We then went for lunch and had the best flat noodles ever served with donkey meat.
Then a plate of elm leaves covered in flower and then fried.Followed up by some kebab sticks.
We then headed to the Mingsha Mountain resort area.Located about 5kms out of town it is a collection of dunes where Chinese tourists(9 million of them a year)come to play ,visit the crescent lake, listen to the “singing sands” and ride camels.
Belt and Road Dunhuang-Liuyuann Bullet Train Liuyuann-Urumqi
8th May
Driven along the belt road to Liuyuann station.Lots of roadworks.
Very cold with hale stones.Checked in for the train and headed at 200kph for Urumqi.
We had an excess luggage check after we got of the train and had to pay an extra two dollars, had a police passport check and then exited left instead of right.Once you do that here you are stuck but looking lost helps and a friendly policeman came to our aid.We gave him our local contact and he insisted on calling them.Short story, he found our guides and we all went merrily off to the hotel.
