Experience the best of Dunhuang

Dunhuang lies at the western end of the Hexi Corridor in Gansu province, among Gobi desert and sand dunes, and was a stop on the Silk Road for caravans between China and Central Asia. The Mogao Caves, a World Heritage Site about 25 km south-east of the town, hold hundreds of cave temples carved into a cliff from the fourth century onwards, with painted walls and clay Buddhas.

One sealed cave, opened in 1900, held tens of thousands of manuscripts, among them Buddhist sutras and a printed Diamond Sutra now kept in London. Beyond the town, the Singing Sand Dunes rise beside Crescent Lake, a spring-fed pool that has survived among the dunes for centuries, and camels carry riders up the slopes at sunset. Yumenguan, the Jade Gate Pass, and ruined Han-dynasty beacon towers stand out in the desert to the north-west.

Donkey-meat noodles are Dunhuang's speciality. Spring and autumn are comfortable, summers are hot and dry and winters bitterly cold, and the night market sells lamb skewers, and grapes and melons from the oasis orchards.