06
Dunhuang
3 days
After a morning in the not so impressive Jiayuguan we arrive at Dunhuang. The train ride took us through the endless desert with the occasional windmills and powerplants and Dunhuang appears like a fata morgana.
The enormous sand dunes appear before us as our Didi drives closer. We ignore the go-karts and asphalt road and head for the dunes. We enjoy ourselves like little children by running down the dune, sinking deep into the sand.
We spend a half day trying to find the bus to the Han Dynasty Great Wall and Yardang National Park on the border with Xinjiang. We are tired from trying to get the people from the hotel lobby to understand that we do not want a taxi. We go look for ourselves with directions we found on a forum. As we do so, we meet Zhang. He takes his job to help us seriously. With a little help from a translation app we get the full guided tour through the city. An hour of walking later Zhang finds out the bus service does not run anymore. He helps us find a restaurant and we say goodbye.