Phase Four

Or Dunhuang: Part Deux


Our second day in Dunhuang we spent enjoying the dunes. We decided to do the Chinese tourist thing and go to the Ming Sha Shan (Singing Sands Mountain) Park. Basically someone decided to set up an amusement park with the megadunes as the central attraction.The big draws for us- besides seeing all the Chinese tourists lace on giant orange boots - were the mechanized toys that were available in the park, and the views of a true oasis.

Orange boots and a cowboy hat.... wow.

As soon as we got there we knew we were in for a "China Experience". One lady approached Morgan and told her through hand gestures and grunts that Morgan should cover her bare arms or risk getting tanned and never finding a suitable husband. We paid the admission fee (expensive by China standards) and entered the gates to find hundreds of Chinese people paying for orange boots to keep the sand out of their shoes. We opted out of the boots and instead put the money towards an atv ride.


We have mixed feelings about the ride. On the one hand, we had a "guide" who rode with Kristen and Paul (on an atv clearly designed for two people). He tried to steer while we were driving, and took over whenever he judged that the terrain was too "risky" for novice drivers. On the other hand, we got to ride through the desert on a freaking atv. Coming down the dunes was a hair raising experience, as we ripped down the side of an incredibly steep drop, sand flying everywhere and then had to make a hairpin turn to avoid shooting over the top of another dune. Kind of awesome.

Take a look at that hard hat. Safety first.

Just being hardcore in the desert.

At the top of one of the dunes was a... ride? Someone had created a track out of what appeared to be grey camel hair, but was probably synthetic polyester and people slid down it on inner tubes. You could also slide down the sand  itself in what looked like big carboard boxes. We paid a few kuay more then we wanted to and slid down the polyster camel slope.

Will and Morgan ripping down the side of a megadune.

Awkwardly getting ready to slide our way down a hill at top speed.

After our tour on the atvs we took some pictures with some monks on vacation, jumped onto a passenger car shaped like a group of elephants making love to a train, and made our way to the oasis. The oasis is like something out of Aladdin. A tiny cresent of water -appropriately called "cresent moon lake"- with some well kept grass and what appeared to be a former temple (that now sold overpriced art, yogurt, apricot leaf tea and beer), the oasis sits in between two mountains of sand.

What is that little one on the side doing???

Apparently Chinese monks have no problem talking to or touching foreign women... who knew?

Crescent Moon Lake- a real oasis in the desert.

We hiked our way up to the top of one of the bigger dunes to get a better view. Can I just reiterate that this is no easy feat. Climbing a dune is so much harder then climbing an equivalently steep and high mountain. Your feet sink into the sand with every step, and the sand itself slides off the side of the dune as you step. Making it to the top called for a rest, and we spent a good hour playing around on the top of the dune and in the valley on the far side.

Paul going heads over heels for the dunes.

Eventually we ran down the dune (as fast as possible) to grab a beer from the former temple and made our way over to the primary reason we came to this particular park. All day we had watched as ultralights made big loops above us. Now, as the sun was setting, we paid up and were taken up into the air above the desert.


For those of you who don't know, an ultralight is like a handglider. With an engine. And some wheels.

Morgan sitting in an ultralight.

We got taken up for only a few minutes, but for the equivalent of $40 cdn, the experience was worth it. Paul was flat out nervous heading into the flight, and was shaky when he made it down, but Kristen was possibly the happiest she has been in China. She refused to get out of the ultralight upon touching down and demanded that Paul pay for another flight!

The only proof that Paul actually got into an ultralight.



Think Kristen is happy?


We made our way back into town for some more kebabs that night, before crashing in our little garden cabins.


On our third and last day in Dunhuang, we walked into a little camel raising village near the hostel. The villagers raise camels for the park, where hundreds are needed to take the hordes of Chinese tour groups on little jaunts up the hills. It was cool to walk through a part of Gansu that quite obviously didn't see many (if any) tourists. We threaded our way through the mud plastered houses, the ladies making bricks from mud and camel dung, the pens for goats and sheep, the drying corn and the date trees until we made it to the desert on the edge of the village.

"Herc" in the Megadunes...

Walking on the dunes is sweaty work.

Here we traipsed around on some virgin sand. The dunes here see few tourists and none in the last few days (as evidenced by the lack of prints in the sand). We climbed, chased lizards, sweated and generally tried to get our fill of the desert experience. One last run down a huge dune, and then it was time to shower and head for the train ride back to Lanzhuo.

Running down sand dunes IS this much fun!