Silk Road itinerary: Dunhuang & Zhangye in 4 days

The singing sand dunes and the crescent shaped spring hidden between them, right on the edge of town. We booked our Mingsha Shan & Crescent Lake tickets on Trip.com.

A little history

Dunhuang was the gateway between China and the West, the oasis where the Silk Road split in two, with one branch running north and one south of the Taklamakan Desert. It was founded as a Han dynasty frontier garrison over 2,000 years ago, and the Yumen Pass, the Jade Gate where caravans left China, is about 90 km away in the Gobi. Merchants heading west stocked up on water and food here before the desert, and those arriving from the west saw its walls as the sign they had made it. Its old name, Shazhou, means "town of sand", which is also where the night market gets its name.

Crescent Lake is that oasis in miniature: a spring of fresh water hidden between the dunes, about 6 km from town. It was shrinking for decades as the water table dropped, and since 2006 it has been refilled and is slowly coming back. The dunes are called singing sands because of the low hum they make when the wind moves the sand.

Unfortunately we didn't see the lake full of water, but it was still a very impressive sight: the curve of the lake bed down below, and the mountains around it opening up the higher you climb the dunes.

How we ended up in hanfu

After lunch at the hotel we jumped on a Didi to the dunes, and the first thing we noticed wasn't the sand. It was the girls: dozens of them, floating towards the entrance in hanfu, the traditional dress of the Han Chinese, all flowing silk, wide sleeves and hair ornaments. We looked at each other and had the same brilliant idea. What could be more beautiful than us, dressed like that, against a golden dune at sunset?

It's very easy to do: all along the road to the entrance there are shops that rent hanfu by the hour.

What nobody tells you is that hanfu was not designed for climbing sand mountains. The dunes are massive, and going up them in a long dress, in the summer heat, is a proper workout. Our sand shoe covers definitely helped. There's also a section with wooden steps laid into the sand that makes the climb easier, but it goes very slowly, so bring a lot of patience. We reached the top very sweaty and looking a lot less like ethereal Silk Road princesses than we had planned, but the sunset pictures were worth every step.

My advice: if you want the hanfu photos, take them, go back and change, and then do the proper climb in normal clothes. It was full of people, and once again we were the only Westerners we saw.

After sunset

When the sun goes down the oasis lights up: the pavilion by the lake glows and music plays across the dunes. In the past there have also been concerts and drone shows here, but we didn't catch any of those, just the music and the lights, and it was beautiful anyway.

Plan your time

Don't underestimate how long it all takes. It doesn't look like it, but the place is huge, and we never made it down to the lake. If you want to see Crescent Lake and the pavilion up close, go there first and climb the dunes after, so you can stay at the top and enjoy the view by night. Once you've climbed, you won't walk back down to the lake. You'll just want to go home.

We went for sunset, around 8pm in August, and in summer the site closes at 10pm. We only just made it out on time.

There are several entrances with buses between them, and it gets very crowded. You need a ticket for the bus too, so buy it in advance: it speeds up the queue massively.

Other things to do on the dunes

• Camel rides along the ridges, the classic Silk Road picture.
• Sandboarding down the slopes.
• Dune buggy and motorbike rides across the sand.
• Glider flights over the dunes and Crescent Lake.

Dinner

By the time we got out it was late. You can eat at the Shazhou Night Market on the way back, but we were too tired, so we grabbed something to take away and ate it at the hotel.

What to eat in Dunhuang

The dish Dunhuang is known for is donkey meat yellow noodles: thin, chewy hand pulled noodles under a brown sauce of stewed donkey meat, mushrooms and tofu, with garlic and vinegar on the side. Wash it down with apricot skin water, a sweet and sour drink made from local apricots, sold everywhere from street stalls to supermarkets. In summer, look for niangpi, a cold dish of starch noodles with vinegar, garlic and chili oil, and for breakfast, mutton soup with flatbread to tear into it. The Shazhou Night Market has all of them, plus roast lamb skewers and dried apricots, grapes and dates to take home.

After Mogao I joined my friend for lunch, and we spent the afternoon on the free activities at the Boman Oasis Resort. There was a photographer taking pictures of guests around the hotel, and we painted our own fans and printed stamps with local patterns. A very cute way to slow down before the night train.

We skipped this one, but if you love land art, it's worth the detour. In the Gobi of Guazhou county, between Dunhuang and Jiayuguan, a few giant sculptures sit in the middle of nowhere, and two of them are the stars.

Son of the Earth is a sleeping baby, curled up on the desert floor and carved from red sandstone: 15 metres long, 9 wide and 4.3 high. It was created in 2016 by Dong Shubing, a professor at Tsinghua University, using 3D scans and carved blocks put together on site.

Boundless is a white palace that seems to float in the desert like a mirage: a main hall and four watchtowers made of about 6,300 steel pipes, 60 metres long and 21 high. Its shape comes from the Tang dynasty pavilions painted in the Mogao and Yulin Caves.

Images: Son of the Earth © CFP via CGTN, Boundless © CGTN

Entry is free and the area is open all day. Give it 20 to 45 minutes, and pair it with the Yulin Caves, which are in the same county. You'll need a car or a day tour from Dunhuang, as it's far from both towns.

There are only around three trains a day between Dunhuang and Zhangye. You could take an earlier one in the afternoon, but we didn't know how long Mogao would take and didn't want to rush, so we took the last one, which is quite late. We arrived in Zhangye around 1am, and by the time we reached our hotel it was almost 3am, so book a hotel with 24 hour check-in.

Hard sleeper or soft sleeper?

It's a sleeper train, so you can actually sleep on the way. We wanted the soft sleeper, a cabin with four bunk beds, but Trip.com couldn't get those for us, so we ended up in the hard sleeper, an open cabin of six. Of course the space is tight. On the bunks you can't properly sit up, and I'm not very tall, so I can't imagine how anyone over 1.60 m manages. If you don't like lying down without really being able to move, I'd suggest a normal seat, even this late.

Bring your dinner

There's almost nothing at Dunhuang station, just one mini mart with local snacks, so buy something before you go if you want dinner on the train.

Train tickets only go on sale 15 days before departure. I recommend pre-booking on Trip.com: you pay upfront and they get your ticket the moment sales open. More on this in "Before you book" at the top.

The famous striped hills: layers of red, orange, yellow and green, as if someone had painted the mountains. The colours come from minerals in layers of sandstone and mudstone laid down over millions of years, then folded and lifted by the movement of the tectonic plates and carved by wind and rain.

After Mati I went back to the city centre to rest a little, and in the afternoon we were picked up for the second part of the full-day Zhangye tour. Honestly, why go all the way to Peru and climb over 5,000 m with no oxygen, when you can come to China and get the same amazing view?

The viewing platforms

You can't wander around the park on your own. Cars aren't allowed inside, and a shuttle bus takes you from one viewing platform to the next, with stairs and boardwalks at each one. There are three gates, North, West and East, and the bus runs in a loop, with two stops where you change bus. The four main platforms are:

• Colourful Cloud Sea Terrace: the largest, with wide views over the ridges they call the "giant scallops". The best one at sunrise.
• Colourful Embroidery Terrace: stairs and a boardwalk along a ridge, with red, white and yellow bands draped over the slopes like silk.
• Colourful Fairyland Terrace: small, but with some of the sharpest stripes. It's also one of the stops where you change bus.
• Rainbow Radiance Terrace: the one they suggest for sunset, when the colours are at their strongest. Keep it for last.

Past the Rainbow Radiance Terrace the bus goes on to quieter spots, the Crouching Tiger Gorge, the Colourful Aohe Terrace and an earth forest, toward the East Gate. At the platforms there's a sign with the bus route, in English too, so take a photo of it. This is my simplified version of it.

There's also an evening light show with a separate ticket. We skipped it, because it had already been a very long day.

In summer the park is busy, and the boardwalks fill up fast toward sunset.

If I did it again

I'd split it: one full day for Mati Temple, and another afternoon just for the mountains, staying for sunset at the Rainbow Radiance Terrace and the light show after dark. The colours are at their best at sunset anyway.

And if you have an extra night and want to switch off completely, you can sleep in a yurt by the mountains at Kaoshan Daying, about 700 m from the West Gate. Most tours pick you up in Zhangye city though, so for a normal trip it's easier to stay in town.

What to eat in Zhangye

Zhangye's signature dish is cuoyu noodles, "rubbed fish" noodles: small pieces of dough rolled by hand into the shape of tiny fish, thick in the middle and pointed at the ends. They come stir fried with meat, peppers and onion, cold with garlic sprouts and chili, or in a broth. A good way to end a day in the mountains.

We didn't make it here, but if you'd rather end with more red rock than water, the Pingshan Grand Canyon is a good alternative to the Wetland Park: a deep red canyon outside Zhangye with plank walkways along the gorge, and far fewer people than the Danxia.

Images © CFP via CGTN

The easiest way to get there is a half-day Pingshan canyon tour from Zhangye. If you want to see both in one go, there's a full-day tour that pairs the Danxia with the Pingshan canyon 5% off with code LINECCEPIBILE5.

We didn't go, but if you have an hour in Zhangye before your train or flight, the Giant Buddha Temple is right in the city. It was founded around 1098, under the Western Xia, and its two storey hall holds a clay Buddha lying on its side, about 35 metres long and reputedly the largest reclining clay Buddha in China, with ten disciples standing behind it. A local legend even says Kublai Khan was born here, though historians have found no evidence for it.

Allow about an hour. The site also has a 13 storey clay pagoda and the Zhangye Museum.

The evening flight lands in Chongqing just before midnight, and the next chapter begins: the Chongqing itinerary.