The China Diaries: Day Five

The train arrived in Dunhuang at 5:40AM. I was awake most of the night listening to the guy on the top bunk beside me saw logs. Awesome. I was slightly jealous that he was able to sleep. We were awoken at 5:10AM to exchange our tickets and get ready. 

When you get on a sleeper train in China, they take your paper ticket and exchange it for a plastic card with your bed number on it. The card serves no purpose. It doesn’t unlock the door, as far as I know. Then about a half hour before you arrive at your station, they change the plastic card back with your paper ticket. I have done this a number of times in China now but still don’t understand it.

It was pitch black outside and the train station was still closed so there went my plan which was to leave my big backpack in luggage storage at the train station and go directly to the Mogao Caves. I got a driver to take me to my hotel. Taxis were very cheap in Dunhuang and they are required by law to use the meters so there’s no scamming going on.

The driver dropped me off at a hotel. I went inside and showed the lady behind the counter my confirmation number. She told me it was too early to get a room. I asked if I could leave my big backpack there and she had the security guard take me into a room where I filled out two tags, one for my bag and one for me.

After waiting in the hotel lobby for some time, I went outside to find a taxi. The driver told me that there was a very good chance I wouldn’t be able to get a ticket for the caves that day. He took me to the office in the city where one can buy tickets and there were hundreds of people lined up. It wasn’t yet light outside. He said he could take me to the caves, as there would be less people and a better chance of getting a ticket for the day. I agreed because I had a friend call months ago to see how getting into the Mogao Caves worked for foreigners. 

The Mogao Caves only allow 6,000 tourists each day. There is a website to pre-book tickets but one needs to have a China phone number. I asked my friend in Shanghai to help me reserve a ticket but she called them and they told her that foreigners can just show up and get a ticket that day. I kept my fingers crossed that she was given accurate information.

I lined up with a bunch of others. There were notices on the ticket windows that said the tickets were already sold out for the day. When one person read it aloud, it caused a bit of an uproar for those who were in line. On top of that, the notice said you had to go to the ticket office in the city to get tickets for the next day. I decided to stay where I was and hoped this wasn’t the case for me. A number of people left which put me first in line at the ticket booth. 

The booth opened up around 7:20AM and I told the lady I wanted an English tour. Entry fee: 258RMB. I was able to get a ticket right away and was told there was a tour at 8:30AM. The people behind me asked how I got a ticket and I told them the tour would be in English. I asked them if they understood English, as this would let them have tickets. They laughed and said no but me getting my ticket immediately caused quite a commotion among their group.

I went inside where I was handed a headset device to view the two movies before the tour. The first movie was a story about the history of the Silk Road and how the caves came to be there. The second movie had a 180° screen. It took us into some of the caves and talked about the statues and the paintings on the walls. I wasn’t even near the caves yet and was already fascinated.

After the movies, we took a bus to the caves. I had to wait for some time for an English guide. I was told that they need a group of seven to go out on the tour. I did ask them what would happen if there were no other foreigners, as I had yet to see a white face on my trip. The guy didn’t respond to my question, he just told me to wait. Around 9:00AM a girl came over and said she’d take me out. My own personal guide = score! 

There's a 34.5 meter high Buddha in there

She took me through eight different caves and told me a lot about the history of them. She pointed out what was original, dating back 1,000 years, and what had been restored. She said that because it was so dry there, it was easy for the original pieces to stay in excellent shape. No pictures were allowed in the caves but they will be forever with me. What an amazing piece of history and so worth the journey.

My tour ended at 11:30AM. The day was scorching hot. I decided to make my way back to my hotel to see if I could get an early check in. My head was buzzing from lack of sleep.

I hopped in a taxi back to my hotel. The driver took me to the address on the paper I had but I told her that wasn’t the hotel I was taken to that morning. She seemed pretty sure that the hotel we were at was the hotel that was on my paper. I saw a hotel kitty-corner to the one we were at and thought it was the hotel I was taken to that morning. I let the taxi driver go and went into that hotel. My heart sank when I realized it was not the same hotel. My immediate thought was about my backpack. I had no idea where it was. I showed the ladies at the hotel the piece of paper and asked them where the hotel was and they pointed to the one across the street where that taxi driver had taken me. I briefly felt sick. I had no idea where the driver had taken me that morning. I then remembered that I had a luggage tag. I was hoping the name of the hotel was on it and sure enough it was. Phew. They told me the hotel where my bag was was about two blocks up the road. I set off to find my backpack and wondered why the girl that morning looked at my confirmation number and told me I was at the right place. Perhaps she was still asleep.

I went back to the hotel with my bag and explained that the hotel was the wrong hotel and that I needed to get my bag. They gave it to me without any problems and I made my way back up the street to my actual hotel.

I was allowed to have an early check in. I grabbed a shower and then headed out for some food. The hotel had a noodle place right next-door. The noodles were cheap and delicious!

I was fairly exhausted after this and planned to stay in my room for the rest of the day and go to bed early. I thought about going to see the Gobi Desert in the afternoon the next day as my check out was at noon. Based on how blistering hot it was, I knew planning on being in the desert in the heat of the day was not a good plan. 

I set out around 6:30PM see the Mingsha Mountain and the Crescent Lake, which are both in the Gobi Desert. Entry fee: 110RMB. There was a shuttle bus that took you up and down the mountain for 20RMB. I took it up and then accidentally took it down before seeing the lake so I had to walk back up. It was barely up and it was about a 1KM walk. The walk up and down gave me a better look at my surroundings.

 

It was quite dusty at the end of the day

 One thing I noted was the noise pollution. It was really hard to enjoy the place. The shuttle buses were continually blasting their horns; there were a bunch of things flying overhead like helicopters and paragliders. On top of that, there were tour guides with microphones and thousands of people screaming with delight. It was at this point, probably due to my over tiredness, that I felt China-ed out. I watched the sun set over the Crescent Lake and made my way back down the hill.

I caught a taxi back to my hotel, took another shower and crawled into bed. Before coming upstairs, I had made arrangements to stay at the hotel until 5pm the following day. They made me pay for half a day’s rent but it was either that or leave at noon and have nowhere to go until my 6:30PM train. I planned on doing very little the following day. A day of rest was needed, as was some sleep.