Dunhuang

We woke up at the western end of the corridor. We were up at 6:00 am again and off the train at Luyuang. (By this time, the train reeked with the smell of urine.

At every station, the attendant stands at attention, saluting.
In order to leave the station, they need to check your ticket which had us fumbling through our bags. Truly a case of underemployment.
We met our guide, Lily (who was on our train—but in hard seat).
We looked like weary travelers and faced our 120km drive to Dunhuang. We were in John’s Shake and Bake. Once again, A/C is not featured on the itinerary.
The driver took a shine to me and stopped by the road to pick some special tree branches that are particularly fragrant (jupe sand root).

All along the drive were numerous Han Dynasty fortifications and cities in ruin. This was the far western end of the Chinese Empire - two desert gates 60km west mark the official end.
We headed to the hotel in Dunhuang (it’s claim to fame: “Bill Gates stayed here”). Finally we had a clean room—and an ice cold shower. At this point, any shower felt good. We had another electrical crisis. This time, there was a new set of plugs.
Lunch at the hotel. 13 unordered dishes of food appeared on our table.
After lunch, we headed to the local museum. Han dynasty (200BC-200AD) and Tang dynasty artifacts with all narration in Chinese.

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We decided to walk around downtown Dunhuang. We saw our Mao jar for 220 yuan…not $220 dollars. Oh well, why pay less ($200 vs. $30!) And, of course, ours is an “original”. This store featured both the young and the old versions of Mao.
We visited the mandatory luminescent cup factory, then the mandatory carpet factory. We saw both in record speed.
Then it was off to Crescent Moon Lake and Singing Sands Mountains. It was the first time we’ve ever had to pay to see sand dunes!

Although we had the option to walk or ride a camel to the dunes, we opted for the “Dumbo” bus for a mere 40-yuan roundtrip.

The site was filled with herds of Japanese tourists with hats and face coverings. Lily said that it looked like chemical warfare had started…

The dunes were spectacular…. we opted not to climb them and slide down to hear the “singing sands”. Instead we watched the tourists take camel rides and looked at the other Disney-esque attractions like archery and parasailing.
Back to the hotel, we washed our shoes off (a combination of sand and urine and spit) and headed to the night market.
At about 7:00, the market begins to change from shoe and clothing vendors to outdoor refreshment stands. The crowds started to fill with girls in mini-skirts and guys with open shirts and beepers. The transformation was amazing—we sat, drinking beers and watched the scene.

We attempted dinner at the Manhattan Café. supposedly run by two Americans. Not a soul could speak English in the place (John’s attempt to ask directions to the men’s room required a fairly graphic display…) We gave their soup a try. It was so bad we hastily retreated to Plan B and grabbed a cyclo to Shirley’s Restaurant across town. The food was spectacular. We met a Scottish couple on tour with a small group. We got two bottles of “Great Wall Wine”, dumplings and spring rolls. It was the best Chinese food we’ve ever had.
We grabbed a cyclo and headed home.