27 Jun 11: Dunhuang, China

We are no longer in the Xinjiang. It is suddenly visible in the writings and signs in all the Gansu province. No more urdu scripts, only Chinese.

Dunhuang surprises us at more than one count. The city has a livable scale and is clean. It is almost brand new but has been rebuilt with thought and identity. Its people are lively and amicable.

We visited the Mogao caves this morning and I recognized Cui Kai building, proportions and successful aesthetics and colour. The caves are more than we expected especially after what we saw in Cappadocia with all the defaced mural paintings. The place was a Buddhist monastery 1400 years ago with a huge library with over 50 000 manuscripts which are now “stolen” and stored in various museums around the world. Writings in Chinese, Uyghur, Persian, Tibetan, Hindi and Hebrew.

The Gobi desert dunes and moon crescent lake did not fill their expectations. Of course the camel ride fulfills all the imagination of western clichés, but it was really over-touristic and too organized. The Chinese and the Japanese loved it and the rare Europeans we saw were too ashamed to go for all of it. We did.

Just came back from the night market where we had dinner. Kim has to fill his subjects choice online now for Skidmore.