Journey Westward: Experiencing Dunhuang’s Past with Family
Preface:
I have always longed for a travel lifestyle, but with a busy work schedule, time for my family has been dwindling. My daughter only grows up once, and I need to take her to see the world beyond. This time, I brought my family on a self-driving trip to Dunhuang for an educational journey. Treating my family to a more meaningful trip.
Dunhuang, once called "Shazhou" in ancient times, lies at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor and is a key point on the Silk Road. The sound of camel bells still lingers in my ears, I cannot recall the language you spoke, the wishes once carved on the murals, the mottled years, yet the past emerges. The long river and the setting sun, the lone smoke in the vast desert—there is no boundary from east to west; stretching all the way, through countless lives and tribulations, just to trade for the time it takes a flower to bloom.
Having weathered a hundred years of vicissitudes, Crescent Moon Spring has gained a touch of charm beyond its age. Countless stories must have unfolded here. Amidst Crescent Moon Spring and the towering buildings outside, I feel like a time-traveling machine, as if we were all our former selves a hundred years ago.
Yardang landforms are geological remnants mainly formed by wind erosion. The wind, like a carving knife, gradually sculpts Quaternary sedimentary rocks into various forms. She is a prolific artist, creating works ranging from grand ancient cities to fleets sailing out to sea, and even a peacock looking back into the distance, attracting countless spectators to pay homage.
Day 1: Jiuquan – Mogao Caves – Crescent Moon Spring
Day 2: Dunhuang – Yardang Devil City
Day 3: Dunhuang – Jiuquan
Travel Tips:
1. Mogao Caves Class A tickets require reservations at least ten days in advance. Class B tickets are available on the spot; no need to pick up tickets, just swipe your ID card to enter. Mogao Caves requires advance reservation for entry time.
2. Crescent Moon Spring tickets are valid for three days.
3. Yardang Devil City tickets cost 50 RMB, and the bus costs 70 RMB. However, the bus only takes you to four points for sightseeing. To explore the Devil City more deeply, you can rent a jeep at the third point; 500 RMB per vehicle takes you to another, more interesting route.
4. The distances between scenic spots are relatively far, so prepare for wind and sand protection. Check tire pressure and other vehicle issues before departure.
【Eternal Memory: Mogao Caves】
Starting from Jiuquan with my child and wife, the 400-kilometer distance seemed shorter due to the family’s excitement. Chatting and laughing, we soon arrived at the first stop of the trip, the Mogao Caves.
I reserved tickets for 2:00 PM. After arriving at the scenic area, we swiped our ID cards and took a bus (about 20 minutes) to reach the core area of the Mogao Caves. Since I didn’t buy tickets ten days in advance, we bought Class B tickets. Class B tickets have shuttle buses every hour, while Class A runs every 45 minutes. After getting off the shuttle at the Mogao Caves entrance, it’s about a 10-minute walk to the murals. Along the way, you can see pagodas across the way, where monks are buried. They are also the guardians of this land.
The Mogao Caves are a World Cultural Heritage site, and their cultural and artistic status is self-evident. Once inside, you can follow the directions for visiting. At the entrance of each cave, there will be a guide explaining the stories of each cave. It is recommended to listen to the guide’s explanation before entering the cave, so you can understand the historical origins and meanings.
Many people might wonder if a child so young can understand. But travel is like an invisible mentor, teaching children many things during the journey. These things are absorbed subtly, and they unconsciously remember the concept of the Mogao Caves, and on a deeper level, learn about history. When she grows up and sees it in textbooks, she will recall the stories her father told her here.
Seeing that travel has made my child lively and interested in historical culture—a topic that usually doesn’t interest most kids—I think this is the charm of educational travel: using another way to let children understand the ingenious combination of Chinese culture and modern technology.
It’s hard to imagine that these vivid murals have existed for a thousand years. By examining each mural, we can glimpse the lives of people a thousand years ago and imagine how the long river of human history has developed to this point. The craftsmen who carved the caves and painted the murals probably never thought they would be passed down for a millennium.
Visiting is a task, but after all, a child is a child. Seeing the shop, she still shouted that she wanted ice cream. But this time, before getting the ice cream, I specially quizzed her on some questions about the Mogao Caves. Only if she answered correctly could she eat it. Unexpectedly, she remembered quite a lot.
After finishing our visit to the Mogao Caves, we drove to another scenic spot that also appears in textbooks: Crescent Moon Spring. We arrived around 4:00 PM, mainly to see the sunset here. As I mentioned earlier, Crescent Moon Spring tickets are valid for three days. The walk from the scenic area entrance to Crescent Moon Spring takes 20 minutes, so you can choose to take a sightseeing car (20 RMB round trip) or ride a camel (100 RMB per person).
【Mountain and Spring Coexisting, Sand and Water Symbiotic】
Echoing Sand Mountain is formed by shifting sand that makes sounds when moved, hence its name. Crescent Moon Spring is nestled in the embrace of Echoing Sand Mountain, its outline resembling a crescent moon, truly a name that fits the scene. Throughout history, wind has moved the sand but never eroded this spring, creating the unique landscape of "mountain and spring coexisting, sand and water symbiotic," a marvel of the world.
Riding camels into Crescent Moon Spring with the camel caravan, I heard a song in my ears: "Climbing the peak to gaze at my hometown, the yellow sand stretches for miles. Where do the camel bells come from, each note striking my heart. Longing to step onto the road of missing, flying across thousand-mile mountains, returning geese at the horizon draped in twilight, where is my hometown?" Listening to "Dream of Camel Bells" quickly transported me into the illusion of the lone smoke in the vast desert. Having visited so many destinations, seeing such a scene still fills me with excitement.
Climbing Echoing Sand Mountain is quite difficult because it’s all sand, with only a few rope ladder-like simple paths for people to reach the top.
Mr. Yu Qiuyu’s description of Crescent Moon Spring is classic: Vast desert, flowing water, extraordinary in the world. Only such a bay in the desert, such stillness amidst wind and sand, such a scene in desolation, such a drop after a high slope—these truly capture the rhythm of heaven and earth and the ingenuity of creation, making one intoxicated and enchanted. By extension, life, the world, and history are all like this. Giving tranquility to noise, clarity to impatience, honesty to arrogance, brightness to roughness. Only in this way does life show its vitality, the world its refinement, and history its charm.
Sitting in the desert, I leaned close to my child and quietly admired the view for a long time. Suddenly, she curiously asked me, "Why is there a small lake in the desert?" I gently told her, "That small lake is called Crescent Moon Spring. It has many plants that protect its water, so even in the desert, it can retain this small lake, and after so long, it’s still there."
As night fell, lights twinkled, and at this moment, what I enjoyed most was the time spent with my family, every minute, every second.
【Lonely Wilderness: Yardang Devil City】
The joy of self-driving is freedom. Although long-distance driving can be tiring, the Elysion’s Honda SENSING safety super sense system, offering Level 2 autonomous driving assistance, saved me a lot of effort and gave me a little helper on long drives.
The last stop of the educational trip with my child was Yardang Devil City, located in the Lop Nur region on the border of Gansu and Xinjiang. Various strange shapes are scattered everywhere. At night, when everything is silent, the wind blowing through the Yardang produces a "whoosh" sound, like ghosts emerging, so locals call it "Yardang Devil City."
Yardang landforms are mainly formed by wind erosion. Over time, wind erosion causes the Yardang surface to peel layer by layer, gradually turning into towers, pillars, walls, etc., and finally, under gravity, the Yardang bodies collapse and disappear. Therefore, according to the development process of Yardang, these isolated Yardang bodies have already entered their prime or even old age.
I was quite surprised. Such scenery might seem uninteresting to children, but my curious daughter was very active in front of this landform, even wanting to take my camera to photograph these strange shapes. I think in the near future, she will also fall in love with travel and photography, going further on the road of learning through travel.
The scale and shapes of Yardang Devil City far exceed the "Yardang landform" defined in dictionaries. Their individual and overall scale, and the strangeness of their shapes, are rare in the world. Their heights range from four or five meters to twenty or thirty meters, and their lengths and widths vary from dozens to hundreds of meters.
The overall appearance resembles a medieval ancient city—this special "castle" has walls, streets, buildings, squares, churches, and sculptures, vivid and lifelike, leaving the world in awe.
Retracing the Silk Road with my family, sometimes walking in the vast desert, sometimes immersed in murals a thousand years old, the Elysion, as the most important "partner" on this educational trip, constantly used its high-tech features to create a convenient and comfortable journey for me and my family. This made me feel like a time traveler from ancient times, discovering the balance between history and modern technology during the journey. In the face of modern technology, one can always find a side belonging to the current society in the long river of history. Looking back at the Silk Road, I also see a glorious era of hard struggle.
Travel time is so short, and when I rarely bring my family, time seems to pass even faster than before. Perhaps we are all more immersed in this way of life.
