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Grand glory writ largein the dust of the Silk RoadBumping one’s way slowly
on the back of a camel across
the desert of Dunhuang, Gansu
province, a modern-day visitor
can easily imagine the past,
when traders trudged along
the ancient Silk Road, chatting
and laughing in good spirits as
they looked forward to a good
harvest.
Dunhuang, which means
grand glory, was a major gate-
way linking China with the West.
Traces of exchanges between dif-
ferent civilizations can be found
in the mottled murals and Bud-
dhist statues of its iconic Mogao
Grottoes, the rolling sandstone
of Echoing-Sand Mountain, a
quiet oasis in the Gobi Desert,
mysterious ancient graves and
numerous earth-tone ruins. All
of these attract more than 10
million tourist visits from around
the world every year.
Zhang Yuping, a taxi driver in
Dunhuang, said that during peak
season in July and August the
small city is packed with tourists.
Room prices at four-star hotels
and above can be as high as
1,000 yuan ($150) a night, and
he, like the other 1,000 or so
local taxi drivers, work around
the clock.
“Some tourists are curious
about remote, exotic desert
scenery, and some have a strong
interest in Buddhist art,” he said.
Zhang said one of his most
memorable fares was an intel-
lectual from Beijing who hired
his car for two days and visited
every grotto except the farthest
one, Yulin, 160 kilometers (99
miles) from downtown, becauseof a tight travel schedule.
“Ten minutes after I dropped
him off at the airport he called
back to say he had canceled the
fl ight and was determined to
go to the Yulin Grottoes,” Zhang
said. “He told me he might not be
able to sleep if he just left.”
The customer also paid extra
money to see all the specially
protected caves at Mogao Grot-
toes, he said. Each entry costs
150 to 200 yuan.
Dunhuang, one of the fi rst cit-
ies in China to open to the West,
has long been a port of entryalong the ancient Silk Road.
It borders the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region on the west,
beyond which lies Central Asia
— Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and
other countries. Farther still lies
Europe.
The path to civilization may be
strewn with thorns, but the result
of the journey has been remarka-
ble. When the envoy Zhang Qian
was sent by emperor Wu during
the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D.
220) to seek diplomatic alliances
with countries and tribes in
the West, he passed throughFROM LEFT: Paintings in the No. 428 cave of the Mogao Grottoes recount stories and philosophies of Buddhism. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY Tourists ride camels at the
Echoing-Sand Mountain in Dunhuang. WANG BINYIN / FOR CHINA DAILY Tourists at Yumen Pass in Dunhuang in December. CHEN MEILING / CHINA DAILY
Tourists visit the Mogao Grottoes, a UNESCO World Heritage site with numerous ancient murals and Buddhist statues, in
Dunhuang, Gansu province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILYIn the Dunhuang
Grottoes and its
environs, voices of the
past can be heard
BY CHEN MEILING
and MA JINGNA