How to travel the old silk road in Gansu (part 1)

Introduction

I am sure everyone has heard about the ancient silkroad, a former trade route from Asia to Europe. It went from Xi’an through Dunhuang, Samarkand, Constantinople and further into Europe. Gansu is one of the major provinces where the silkroad went through. Gansu is one of the poorest provinces in China and not very „famous“ for tourists, especially for international tourists. However, there are so many gorgeous natural sites and parks as well as much history to be discovered.

Our travel lead us from:

Xi’an (check out my post 4 days in Xi’an as well)
Dunhuang
Jiayuguan
Zhangye
to Ganjia (in the south of Lanzhou, near the tibetan highlands)

The trip could be done in one week, but 8-10 days are better, especially if you want to relax a bit as well. A Chinese driver license will make it much easier for local mobility, although we still travelled the distances between cities by train. If you don’t have one, you can still go everywhere by Taxi, Didi or tours organized by a travel agency.

Tour highlights

Part 1

Day 1 – Dunhuang

We took a flight from Xian to Dunhuang, arriving 14:45. Dunhuang is really a small city (only 150,000 people or so living there), so it took only 15 minutes from the airport to our hotel (HuaXia International Hotel).

Mingsha Mountain Crescent Spring

The crescent shaped oasis is located about 1km away from the hotel and can be reached by foot or a 2 minute taxi drive.

We took the chance on this day to visit the desert national park (110 Yuan entrance fee). As unusual as it sounds, this day it rained, at least some sprinkling. We did not mind, it was actually a nice change to the 38 degrees we experienced in Xian before.

The park is the perfect tourist location (as many are in China). Shops and restaurants in front of the entrance and inside the park any kind of entertainment you need.

Camel Riding
Quad and desert buggy driving
helicopter flights
dune sliding
dune climbing
various photospots and costumes for pictures

For the less active people, you can even take an electric golf cart to the main oasis spot.

We wandered around the oasis a bit. Definitely make sure to go BEHIND it, so you can take pictures without hundreds or thousands of people.

After that we climbed a quite high dune, luckily there was a rope ladder in the sand that made it much easier.

Up on the dune, you will have a great view on the oasis. There are also quads and buggies you can take for a drive for 120 to 240 yuan.

Going back down the dune is quite easy and fun, just run, slide or roll down. Back down, we stopped for a small snack, some instant noodles.

While walking back, we discovered a traffic light for pedestrians and camels on the other lane, which was quite hilarious, but also showed how well organized everything is.

There were around 1,000 camels „in action“

Just outside the park gates, a restaurant „Chengdu Restaurant“ was recommended by Dianping, so we stopped there and had some really great food, for touristy prices (for chinese standards, compared to western prices it was still OK, 160 yuan for 2 persons).

Dunhuang, Day 2

Mogao Grottoes

We got up early and made our way to the Mogao Grottoes, some ancient caves and temples built into stone walls near Dunhuang. It takes about 15-20 minutes from any point in Dunhuang. You have to buy a ticket at the ticket office and then take a bus to the main area. The bus drive takes about another 10 minutes and is free of cost.

The tourist area is really nice, there is a particular coffee shop there (the name had something to do with a dog) where we had a great coffee. The cake was a bit sweet for our taste, but OK.

The main attractions are the caves and the temples inside, with standing and laying Buddha figures. Please keep in mind that you are not allowed to take pictures in there, the guards are very strict about it!

There are some stupas out in the desert, but we could not make out why they are there or what the were build for.

many small cave „appartments“ and temples

We went back with the bus to the entrance area. In the meantime, our hotel had organized a taxi driver that would take us to Dadi Zhizi, which is basically a giant baby laying in the middle of the desert. The drive from Dunhuang takes about 1.5 hours (one way) and the round trip cost us 300 yuan. There are also many other „artistic“ sculptures in the area, such as a giant head of a warrior. We did not bother to stop at any other.

Dadi ZhiZi (son of the earth), an enormous baby in the middle of the desert.

What we would generally advice is that you rent a car if possible (you need a chinese driving license) since most of the taxi and didi drivers are chronically tired and almost everyone we had fell into a „1-second-sleep“ often, which is a really scary experience I do not recommend.

Back in Dunhuang, my wife went to a professional photographer (there are a few near the oasis entrance) to take pictures in the desert with a traditional dress. This is much recommended, even though i do not generally like taking pictures or such kind of „dress-up photography“, the resulting pictures where stunning. The price is around 1,200 Yuan for a 3 hour session (including getting make up and dressed).

In the meanwhile, I went to „downtown“, to the dunhuang night market (during the day). We did not have the time to go there at night, but it is definitely worth it, there are many outdoor restaurants, bars and cafes. I can recommend the „Time Cabinet Cafe“, I had the best coffee in a long time there.

Around 6, I met up with my wife again and we were picked up by an off-road jeep to venture deeper into the desert and enjoy a romantic dinner in the dunes. Here we can highly recommend the „Dunhuang Wild Luxury Desert Camping Hotel“. The staff is super friendly and supported us on WeChat how to get there and how to get to the trainstation while leaving.

You have to book including the „dinner option“. Then, around 19:00 you will be picked up at a location of your choice and driven into the „base camp“.

From there, they will take you with some off road vehicle for a (crazy) drive through the dunes. It is like riding a rollercoaster. Then, you will be brought to the „dining area“ a place within the dunes, with 4-5 tables for couples set up. The dinner starts at sunset (around 9pm) and included many local dishes, meat as well as many vergetarian plates. It’s all inclusive, so you can drink as much red wine (local, but really good), water, soda etc. and have some snacks/deserts as well. The event ends around 10:30pm with a small firework. Then, you will be brought to your tents, which include a pair of mattresses (a bit hard for our taste).

Of course, as you are out in the desert, don’t expect to get too much sleep, there is quite some noise, first from wind, second from other travelers being brought back and forth by quads later in the night and earlier in the morning. Don’t miss out the great sunrise at around 6:15am!

Jiayuguan, Day 1

Jiayuguan Pass Fortress

We decided to take a train to Jiayuguan from Dunhuang early in the morning (8:30am, there is only one bullet train each day). The ride takes about 2,5 hours, so we arrived in Jiayuguan at 11:20am. The city is as well small, so we booked a hotel in the city center, named „Plaza Holiday Inn“. It turned out it has nothing to do with the „real“ Holiday Inn chain, but it was not too bad either.

There is only one „attraction“ in Jiayuguan, which is Jiayuguan Pass Great Wall Fortress (嘉峪关关城嘉峪关关城). The entrance fee is 110 Yuan, and it will take about maximum 2-3 hours if you really go slow.

Therefore, next time, we would not necessarily stay in Jiayuguan for a night, but directly travel on to Zhangye in the evening by train (only about 1.5 hours).

A few nice places we found, we can recommend to visit:

StayIn Cafe, a small nice coffee shop, with an equally nice cat and a great assortment of english and chinese books to have a read.
Pizza Hut, yes – its fast food, but a really nicely decorated restaurant and the only western option we found. The pizzas were good as well, naturally!

Jiayuguan Day 2 / Zhangye

Jiayuguan Xuanbi Great Wall section

We started to the Jiayuguan Xuanbi Great Wall section, which turned out to be a surprise, the scenery was incredibly gorgeous and there were almost no tourists. (It takes normally about 20 minutes to go there from the city, but right when we wanted to go there, a convoy with about 20 tanks and other military vehicles crossed the street, so it took a bit longer. It was quite an impressive event though). The entrance with 21 Yuan per person was also reasonable.

We took a hike up the wall and down the designated path, but it is possible to go off-track and hike through the mountains there. There is also another piece of the great wall just nearby, but again, there is not much more to see from there.

The whole tour took about 1.5 hours. On our way back we stopped again on one of the nice coffee shops and headed to the Jiayuguan south railway station.

How to choose the right hotel in Zhangye

We took the 14:40 high speed train from Jiayuguan to Zhangye (it takes about 1hr 20 minutes).

In small cities like Jiayuguan or Zhangye, there aren’t any international brand hotels, and chinese taste and standards for hotels are a bit different to europeans. For one, the beds are incredibly hard, even for me, who normally likes a hard mattress, it is way too hard. Therefore, I really took a long time to „research“ for the right choice of hotel.)

Arrived in Zhangye, we checked in into our pre-booked hotel „ZhangYe Ding He International Hotel“. However, the hotel was really run down and the room not clean, so we decided to look for another hotel and ended up in the Holiday Inn Express, which we can highly recommend. Clean, modern design and in a very nice location near the wetland park. The price was much better as well (around 250 RMB per night) I hope you can appreciate this recommendation.

For dinner, we went to the „Xi Bei Kitchen“ (Modern Chinese Restaurant and Western Restaurant), which was extremely delicious, had a creative design and reasonable prices (240 RMB for 2 persons and we had a lot of dishes and drinks).

To be continued in part 2!