We arrived in Dunhuang today.  It’s like a step back in time, twenty years, to the Beijing of the 1980’s.  Very few private cars on the road; some cabs; older style buses.  The city is small and neat: only about 180,000 people all told, 50,000 in the city center.  The flight in was dramatic.  On the right side of the plane, to the north, was an incredible expanse of dessert waste.  To the left side, the south, were massive snow-capped peaks.  Dunhuang lies in the middle, in the Hexi corridor, a narrow strip of land the runs east to west, the avenue of the Silk Road. 

    The local museum was rather desultory but contained a few good pieces: written (not printed) Tang dynasty texts from the Library Cave; various bits and pieces of Han dynasty pottery and cloth and tools. 

     The real treasure, the reason we came, is the Mogao Caves, carved into solid rock and containing some of the greatest Buddhist statuary and paintings in the world.  We will visit them tomorrow.  But the influence of the cave art is everywhere in evidence.  In the middle of town, at the center of a traffic circle, is a giant statue of a "Fei Tian," a flying spirit, one of the dominant motifs from the caves.  The originals will certainly be more stunning that the traffice goddess.

    We will also try to find our way to the local Mosque tomorrow.  The greater Islamic influence is obvious: more men with white skull caps demonstrating their affiliation.  It is a Chinese city but the ethnic mix is clearly different and more varied than Beijing.

     Dinner was a bit adventurous today: venison and – get ready for it – camel hoof.   I had never had the latter before but…when in Dunhuang…

    And the internet connection at the hotel is marvelously cheap: only about 75 cents for half an hour!

    What a great place.