Dūnhuáng -> Turpan

Today we visited the Magoa Caves. No photography was allowed inside the caves. Therefore, my pictures were limited. The one picture posted I took serendipitously from a replication of the cave art.

In general, the caves "weren’t all that", but there were lots of tourist viewing them. Overall the tourism in Western China had a bit of a Walmart feel to it. It was grand, but not top quality. The crowds distracted from the experience too.

The following are quotes from our tour brochure:

 “The Mògāo Grottoes are considered one of the most important collections of Buddhist art in the world. At its peak during the Tang dynasty (618–907), the site housed 18 monasteries, more than 1400 monks and nuns, and countless artists, translators and calligraphers.“

 “Wealthy traders and important officials were the primary donors responsible for creating new caves, as caravans made the long detour past Mògāo to pray or give thanks for a safe journey through the treacherous wastelands to the west. The traditional date ascribed to the founding of the first cave is AD 366. The caves fell into disuse for about 500 years after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty and were largely forgotten until the early 20th century, when they were ‘rediscovered’.”

“In 2015 the Mògāo Grottoes site saw a huge upgrade, with a state-of-the-art visitor centre built just a few kilometres outside of central Dūnhuáng. Admission includes two 30-minute films, one on the history of the area and the Silk Road, and one that allows close-up computer-generated views of cave interiors not normally open to visitors in an IMAX-style theatre. Additional evidence tourism is on hyper-drive in China.”

 In the evening around 5pm we took the bullet train to Turpan arriving around 9pm.