Journey to Dunhuang, the Desert Pearl
Dunhuang, anciently known as 'Shazhou', was the throat passage from the ancient Guanzhong region to the Western Regions, a famous cultural city with a history of over two thousand years. Since the discovery of the Library Cave in 1900, the Mogao Caves have been extensively looted by foreign explorers, shocking the academic world and making the Mogao Caves renowned worldwide. Due to the declining Eastern Empire and the constrained thinking of the grassroots at that time, many advanced achievements in Dunhuang studies were abroad. It wasn't until the establishment of the Dunhuang Academy in 1944 that Chinese scholars began in-depth research and interpretation of cave art. The Mogao Caves are in China, and Dunhuang studies are in China. For the fifth stop of my reopened Silk Road journey, I came to the long-awaited Dunhuang, which was also the stop I anticipated the most. Here, I fulfilled a small dream of many years.
In the morning, I left the hostel and took a bus to the Mogao Caves scenic area. Since it was still early, there weren't many people. After buying a ticket, I stepped into this treasure trove of Eastern art. I planned to spend a whole day slowly exploring the Mogao Caves, as I had previously read books about Dunhuang and watched CCTV's documentary on Dunhuang, so I was quite familiar with some of the caves inside.
The Mogao Caves have endured centuries of wind, frost, rain, and snow, as well as human destruction. By the eve of liberation, they were severely damaged, and many caves were beyond recognition. The small eaves on the cliff face, remnants from the Song Dynasty, still bear clear murals.
On the cliffs of Mingsha Mountain, caves are arranged in rows. Over 1,600 years of construction have made it the world's largest and most content-rich cave complex. Today, the Mogao Caves are the most precious cultural heritage of all humanity, irreplaceable and non-replicable national treasures. To better protect the murals and colored sculptures inside the caves, visitors can only use flashlights during the tour. Each guide carries one flashlight, and cameras are prohibited inside the caves, so it's impossible for individuals to photograph the murals and sculptures.
Crescent Moon Spring at Mingsha Mountain
In a green basin surrounded by the peaks of Mingsha Mountain in Dunhuang, there lies a pool of clear water shaped like a crescent moon—this is Crescent Moon Spring. Traditionally, water and fire are incompatible, and a clear spring in the desert is hard to sustain. Yet Crescent Moon Spring lies like a new moon nestled in the yellow sand. The spring water is cool, clear, and sweet-tasting, quietly lying in the embrace of the sand mountains for thousands of years. Though often hit by fierce winds and sandstorms, it still ripples with blue waves and murmuring water sounds! The sky in Dunhuang is so blue; the streets, though small, are very clean and tidy. Taking a pre-booked car, I arrived at my destination—Dunhuang's Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring—in about fifteen minutes!
To the right of the entrance, there is a camel caravan. For 100 yuan, you can ride a camel across the desert to Crescent Moon Spring. But they won't go with just one person; you need at least three. So I played with the camels while waiting for enough people to form a group.
After a short wait, a tour group arrived, and we set off! Sitting on the camel's back and enjoying the scenery was a pleasure—the endless desert was very mysterious. Perhaps many people, influenced by Sanmao, yearn for the desert, and I am no exception. The sand peaks, carved by the wind, looked as sharp as if cut by a knife. Although made of such soft, fine grains of sand, they could form such sharp edges, showing their immense power. Their vastness rivals the ocean, and they possess the same terrifying ability to swallow everything.
After the camels carried us halfway up the mountain, we could start climbing. We could step on ladders to reach the top and then slide down, which was easy, or we could climb directly on the sand. I thought that if the journey were too easy, it wouldn't be fun, so I decided not to use the ladders. Walking one step, sliding back two—the sand was very fine and soft. Lying on it felt wonderful—truly a feeling of using the mountain as a bed and the sky as a blanket.
After nearly an hour, I finally reached the top. After a short rest, we began to slide down the sand. The sand beneath us seemed to obey commands, moving quickly down the mountain with our joyful shouts. It was like riding a slide or entering a magical world. As the sand cascaded down overwhelmingly, strange sounds suddenly arose in our ears—very abruptly. First, there was a thumping sound, like a group of people running in a corridor, then it turned into the neighing of warhorses, as if two armies were fighting and killing nearby. In a moment, the sound suddenly became urgent, mixed with the sounds of gongs, drums, and the playing of sheng and flutes, like a wedding procession passing by playing music. The sliding sand rushed down like a mountain flood, unstoppable! At this point, the sounds in our ears grew louder, and the entire Mingsha Mountain became an open-air music festival. Thousands of sounds surged together, hard to distinguish: strings and winds, bells and chimes, swords and weapons clashing, drums and gongs, surging tides, rustling pines—both thrilling and spine-tingling, yet also carefree and intoxicatingly lost! This is simply a miracle of nature. If I hadn't heard it with my own ears, who would believe that these tiny grains of sand could produce such heavenly music! Sliding down from the mountain, you can see Crescent Moon Spring, which looks exactly like a new moon. Traditionally, water and fire are incompatible, and a clear spring in the desert is hard to sustain. Yet Crescent Moon Spring lies like a new moon nestled in the yellow sand. The spring water is cool, clear, and sweet-tasting, quietly lying in the embrace of the sand mountains for thousands of years. Though often hit by fierce winds and sandstorms, it still ripples with blue waves and murmuring water sounds!
After playing for quite a while, I felt a bit tired and took the scenic area shuttle back to the entrance. Unknowingly, I had spent nearly four hours at Mingsha Mountain, still wanting more. Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring are truly a natural wonder, ingeniously created by heaven and earth!
Before coming to Dunhuang, I always felt it was a city full of mystery. While preparing for my Dunhuang trip, I came across a promotion for the show 'Dunhuang Shengdian' and found it very interesting. Since my own work is in stage productions, I became very interested in this first desert live-action performance in the world. Traditional stage performances are man's work; only live-action performances in natural landscapes are a collaboration between man and God. The New York Times once described live-action landscape performances as 'Chinese landscape frenzy.' The northwest landscapes are vast and expansive, and the desert is the main component of the northwest's natural body. 'Dunhuang Shengdian,' with the help of Dunhuang's world-famous Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring, seamlessly packages and restores every mountain and stream of Dunhuang, brewing a strong Dunhuang flavor on the path of returning to nature and simplicity. 'Dunhuang Shengdian' is set against the backdrop of Mingsha Mountain's landscape and the surrounding mountain ranges, right at the foot of the sand mountain, where strange peaks show ravines and gorges magnificently, and mist and haze drift in the air. Looking into the distance, the distant Mingsha Mountain and the nearby sand dunes embrace the theater, and the blue Crescent Moon Spring ripples with green waves, all becoming elements of the live-action theater. The ultimate sublimation of nature's work, real mountains and real water, performing an immortal Silk Road legend on location, creating a spectacular desert live-action theater. It is worth mentioning that 'Dunhuang Shengdian' has a 360-degree rotating and forward-backward moving audience seating, breaking the conventional viewing and perspective relationship compared to traditional Dunhuang stage plays. Through the continuous rotation and alternation of the audience seating and stage performance, it enhances the audience's viewing experience, and I felt more deeply the romantic sentiments belonging to this stage and this city. What impressed me most during the performance was the inclusion of the intangible cultural heritage project 'Datiehua' (striking molten iron). Seeing the splendor of 'Datiehua' for the first time truly added brilliance to the performance. I think the audience admired it too; every time 'Datiehua' was performed, it drew cheers from the crowd. In short, this performance marked a perfect end to my first day in Dunhuang. Friends visiting Dunhuang must see the magnificent 'Dunhuang Shengdian' once.
