The Mogao Cave Grottoes

The second day, I woke up early and took a bus down to the city centre, where I had to change to another bus to get to the Mogao Grottoes. The bus initially takes you to the visitor centre where you will catch a 30 minutes 3D movie which briefly narrates the history about the grottoes, then it will transport you to the actual site of the grottoes, which is around 10km away.

The main entrance of the Mogao Grottoes. Within these door lies a huge statue of Buddha.

Within these doors lies the breathtaking mural paintings

An example of wall murals outside the cave entrances

Amazing

There are like almost 200 grottoes available here, yet you can only visit 8-12 caves once, strictly in a group, with a designated tour guide who has been deliberately trained for that. The tour guide will choose whichever caves he or she likes, so you had better be nice towards him or her, then you will get to see the nicer ones. I was fortunate enough to get a good one where she took us to some of the nice caves and gave us an excellent narration of the murals and sculptures inside it. Photography is strictly prohibited as the flash would oxidise the fragile wall paintings inside; if you get caught you would be yelled upon, but still this did not deter some tourist from doing so. How shameful.

Only 10 out of these caves that you are allowed to visit.

That's how it's supposed to look like inside.

I was totally mesmerised by the paintings; well, it isn't that grand like the ones in Sistine Chapel, but then the intricacy and beauty of the drawings were beyond words. I felt like I just want to see all the drawings in the 200 caves. Nonetheless, they rotate 12 caves every 6 months to open to the public, hence it would take you at least 2 decades to finally catch a glimpse of all the caves here.

It was already lunch time when I was done with the caves, hence I went back to my hotel and took a short nap. After that, it was another amazing trip to the dunes to catch the my first sunset in the desert.

I feel the desert calling me...

Whispering Sand Dunes and The Crescent Moon Spring

Ah... the desert, here I come.

MingShaShan-YueYaQuan (whispering sand dunes - crescent moon spring) National Park was just 200 meters away from my hostel, fortunately. By the time I walked into the park, the sun was beginning to set, and there were still a small crowd loitering amidst the dunes waiting for the sunset. I have to compliment the Chinese for making all these tourist attraction really easy to visit - free wifi, buggy service, clean lavatories, food stalls, despite the exorbitant entrance fees. Due to the Mers-CoV outbreak recently, I decided not to try a camel ride up the dunes this time. 

The oasis

Greens growing in the oasis

So, after a short walk around the oasis of the Crescent Moon Spring, I trudged upwards to the sandy dunes to catch a nice spot for the sunset. I kept on getting my shoes sunken in the sand, so eventually I walked barefooted and that felt awesome! Lying on the sand, looking downwards at the oasis and the carpark, it felt awesome. I'm the king of the dune!

Camels

Long walk ahead

Whispering Sand Dunes

Climbing up the dunes

The desert and I.

I'm the king of the dunes.

My dune.

Ok I'm lost. Show me the way home.

As the sun slowly disappeared from the horizon, the weather turned chilly and it was time to head back. I decided to visit the local night market instead, tried some local food and grabbed some souvenirs this time. So, another bus ride to the market and back, with a short spin in the market, I collapsed on my bed in no time.