At 8:00am, your guide will pick you up from the lobby of your Dunhuang hotel and transfer you to Visitors' Center of Mogao Grottoes, an UNESCO listed World Heritage Site, where you will watch two documentaries about the caves and Silk Road. Then, a professional cave guide will lead you to explore about 7 to 9 caves closely. You will be astonished by well-preserved fresco and statues in the caves from the 4th century. 

The caves were built by monks with donated funds and elaborately painted to serve as shrines and for meditation and enlightenment. Those paintings are also a teaching tools to inform those illiterate about Buddhist beliefs and stories. The primary caves were sponsored by patrons of important clergies, local ruling elites, foreign dignitaries, and Chinese emperors. Some of the caves might have been funded by merchants, military officers, and local residents.  

Lunch is included at local restaurant. 

Around 3:30pm, you will be transferred to see Singing Sand Dunes and Crescent Moon Spring. This magical spring is located in the center of sand dunes but it has never been covered by the sand throughout the history. It is also called whistling sand or barking sand that produces sound which is perhaps caused by wind passing over dunes or by walking on the sand. Crescent Moon Spring is a crescent-shaped lake oasis in Gobi Desert that is slowing shrinking due to climate change. After the lake visit, you will be transferred back to your hotel in Dunhuang where this wonderful private day trip concludes. 

*Note: Your visit to the Mogao Caves might be changed to the afternoon due to daily availability of the attraction. In this case, you will visit the Singing Sand Dunes and Crescent Moon Spring in the morning.

8 hours

Jiayuguan City, China