Day 01 Arrival Dunhuang
Arrive in Dunhuang. Be met at the airport & transferred to your hotel. Free at leisure for the rest of the day.

Known as Shazhou in ancient times, Dunhuang was served as a rest stop for traders as the gateway through which Buddhism, Islam and Christianity entered China. Dunhuang is located at the western end of Hexi Corridor in Gansu Province in northwest of China. It is a small oasis surrounded by high mountain, deserts and the Gobi Desert with Dang River as the city's water supply. The city boasts 241 places of historic interests, and many of them are world-famous for its long history

Day 02 Dunhuang (B/L/D)
Today's trip is to visit Mogao Grottoes at first, the site is considered the great treasure house of Buddhist arts in existence. Later Crescent Spring and Sighing Sand Dune.

Lying at the foot of Sighing Sands Dune and 25km southeast of Dunhuang City, the Mogao Grottoes measures 1,680 meters from south to north. It has more than 700 caves, of which 492 caves hold more than 2,000 painted sculptures and 45,000 square meters of murals. There are five grottoes with a wooden structure. Mogao is the largest, oldest and the best-preserved Buddhist grottoes with the richest contents in the world today.

Sighing Sand Dune starts from Mogao Grottoes in the east. It is 40km from east to west, and 20 from south and north. The dune with an elegant shape. When people slide down along the slopes, a sound will be heard, hence the name. Crescent Spring is surrounded by the sand dunes with the shape of crescent. It is a miracle that the spring has never dried up over the past thousand years.

Day 03 Dunhuang (B/L/D)
Today, you have a chance to see the most beautiful masterpiece of nature-Yardangs. Dunhuang Yardang National Geologic Park is the biggest Yardangs-landform group in the world. Then you will visit the Yumenguan Pass and the Great Wall of Han Dynasty(about 2000 years ago).

Situated 180 kilometers in the northwest away from DunhuangCity, the Dunhuang Yardang National Geologic Park is the largest one of Yardang Landform found so far. The park stretches twenty-five kilometers from north to south and about two kilometers from east to west. It features the unique and wonderful scenes and landscapes of gobi desert.

The most magnificent view is that you can find the ‘miniature’ for much world-famous architecture inside the park, such as the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, the Potala Palace in Tibet, the Arabian mosque, the Pyramid and Sphinx in Egypt, the relics of ancient Roman and so on. It seems as an architectural art museum of the world while located in a desert and delivers many delights and enjoyments to you. In addition, you will find other works of art by Nature, such as sculptures of lions, caravans trekking along the Silk Road, and turtles emerging from the sea. This area is referred to as the Yardang Abode of Demons by local people.

Situated 75km northwest of Dunhuang, Yumenguan Pass was a strategic pass on the ancient Silk Road. Yumen in Chinese means the jade of Gate. It was so named because the jade of Hotan in what is now Xinjiang region was transported to central China through this pass. One poet named Wang Zhihuan had a famous line. ‘Beyond the Yumenguan Pass the breath of Spring has never crossed.' The mention of Yumen in the poem has made the pass all the more famous. The city is square, with well-preserved city walls and two gates in the west and the north respectively. The city wall is 10 meters high, three meters wide at the top, and five meters wide at the bottom. Both people and horses can go directly up to the wall.

The main function of the Great Wall in China is to prevent Chinese from invading in ancient times. So does the Great Wall of Han Dynasty. It is also the longest great wall in China.

Day 04 Departure Dunhuang (B)
Say goodbye to Dunhuang and continue your tour to next city.

Service Ends