(Please backdate to 1/27/13)
Dunhuang is awesome. It is a little, laid back, desert oasis town built for travelers - travelers of ancient times and travelers of today. In silk road days, Dunhuang was established to provide travelers with a well deserved break from the monotony of sand dunes as traders made their way to Xian and central China and today the town is filled with backpacker’s hangouts and youth hostels. So here there is wifi and I can do laundry - awesome!
Also a plus, there are other foreigners here! I met up with a German guy and a Czech and an American girl I met at the hostel and together with some Chinese travelers we visited the famous Mogao Caves - a series of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a cliff where some mountains meet the sand. Along the cliff wall are carved over 700 rooms (cave dwellings), some large, some small, some used to house monks, some used to house some of the best preserved Buddhist statues in all of China. Apparently, long ago, Buddhist monks used to live in isolation in these cave grottoes to meditate for years and years hoping to realize the teachings of the Buddha. Also here are two of the largest sitting Buddha statues in the world (the largest is in Leshan, two hours south of Chengdu - a trip I took a month ago) and the largest Buddha statue in the world portraying the Buddha in a lying down position, sleeping. The caves themselves are located outside the town in a beautifully isolated and serenely quiet part of the desert and the sky, for maybe the first time I’ve ever experienced in China, was crystal clear, pollution free, and bright blue. It was a great day.
(Unfortunately, and understandabley, photos were strictly forbidden insdide the cave dwellings so I have very little to show for what they actually looked like from the inside but to give you an idea, each room was delicately painted along the entire interior with very intricate paintings of various sitting boddhisatvas and scenes depicting the Buddha amongst students. And most rooms had an actual statue of one of the Buddhist deities in which monks, long ago, could kneel in front of to pray.)
I and the Czech girl, Aknaya, broke away from the group afterwards to explore the market in town, small, but full of some stellar food stalls, bought some dried apricots, and ate some chao mian pian (炒面片), or fried sheet noodles mixed with vegetables. I was hungry, having not eaten since before I hopped the train yesterday afternoon in Turpan.
I think tonight will be a relax, catch on some sleep kind of night. They rent bikes here so I’m planning on renting a bike and taking a ride out to what they call the “Singing Sands”. About 5 km outside of town, these sands are supposed to be the place to get a real taste of the desert. Better get some rest...
Dunhuang is awesome. It is a little, laid back, desert oasis town built for travelers - travelers of ancient times and travelers of today. In silk road days, Dunhuang was established to provide travelers with a well deserved break from the monotony of sand dunes as traders made their way to Xian and central China and today the town is filled with backpacker’s hangouts and youth hostels. So here there is wifi and I can do laundry - awesome!
Also a plus, there are other foreigners here! I met up with a German guy and a Czech and an American girl I met at the hostel and together with some Chinese travelers we visited the famous Mogao Caves - a series of Buddhist grottoes carved into the side of a cliff where some mountains meet the sand. Along the cliff wall are carved over 700 rooms (cave dwellings), some large, some small, some used to house monks, some used to house some of the best preserved Buddhist statues in all of China. Apparently, long ago, Buddhist monks used to live in isolation in these cave grottoes to meditate for years and years hoping to realize the teachings of the Buddha. Also here are two of the largest sitting Buddha statues in the world (the largest is in Leshan, two hours south of Chengdu - a trip I took a month ago) and the largest Buddha statue in the world portraying the Buddha in a lying down position, sleeping. The caves themselves are located outside the town in a beautifully isolated and serenely quiet part of the desert and the sky, for maybe the first time I’ve ever experienced in China, was crystal clear, pollution free, and bright blue. It was a great day.
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| The entrance to the larger sitting Buddha cave |
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| Outside the cave grottoes |
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| Is this China? Blue sky around Mogao |
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| Friends I met at the hostel and visited the caves with |
I and the Czech girl, Aknaya, broke away from the group afterwards to explore the market in town, small, but full of some stellar food stalls, bought some dried apricots, and ate some chao mian pian (炒面片), or fried sheet noodles mixed with vegetables. I was hungry, having not eaten since before I hopped the train yesterday afternoon in Turpan.
I think tonight will be a relax, catch on some sleep kind of night. They rent bikes here so I’m planning on renting a bike and taking a ride out to what they call the “Singing Sands”. About 5 km outside of town, these sands are supposed to be the place to get a real taste of the desert. Better get some rest...
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