Day 37: Dunhuang Day 2(敦煌) – July 24

The old city of Dunhuang is actually really small, so following our guidebook we walked over to the Dunhuang History Museum, but apparently our book is 3years outdated! So instead of walking anymore in the desert sun, we succumbed and hailed a taxi to the new museum. The museum is new, with interesting architecture and had a lot of information about the city’s rich history. Being a centre of trade and people, it is really an oasis in the desert, both figuratively and literally, it is surrounded by desert!!!!!!

In the afternoon, we headed out to see the historic relics from the Han dynasty, and whatever remains of the great wall built back then. Dunhuang was the entrance city during the Han dynasty for the Silk Road, so along with Jiayuguan there’s a lot of interesting mishmash of different peoples. And for the last part of the day, we headed into the desert to see the “Devil City” (魔鬼城), where caravans of traders would avoid this region due to the strange buildings and demonic howling noises heard at night!

I’m not sure about others, but when going through the desert it really reminded me of a Doraemon movie, going into the desert with tales of evil and monsters, and with me I carried a pack which contained all the cool gadgets like…. a magical lamp in case of darkness, armor to protect me from incoming attacks of sand-monsters (a goretex shell), and all I’m missing is a 竹蜻蜓。Maybe I’m just suffering from delusions caused by minor heat-stroke……