Page 8 - 15 Day China Sample

nights. The Dunhuang Grand Soluxe Hotel is a 256 room, 3 ½ star hotel centrally located in Dunhuang. Many of the city's main sights are within easy walking distance. The Great Silk Road is one of the last opportunities to step into a world lost in time. Ancient, varied cultures, thriving arts and crafts and contemporary skills follow traditions dating back thousands of years. re Dunhuang is an oasis of brilliant emerald fields set amidst sweeping brown sand dunes, and snow-white peaks towering in the distance. The tree-line streets are picturesque thoroughfares for Mongolian ponies and locals in traditional dress. In this region there is a mixture of cultures - Chinese (in the ethnic sense), Mongols, Uighurs, Tibetans and Hsia. In the mountains the construction of the Buddhist cave-shrines started in 366 A.D.. Scriptures were stored and wall paintings and sculptures were created and maintained. Dunhuang is located between Urumqi and Yumen. It is an oasis irrigated by the Tan River and began to serve as an important station on the main trade route between China and Central Asia since the first century B.C. when Emperor Han Wu-ti started to expand the empire westwards. Dunhuang, meaning ‘Blazing Beacon’, was the center of cultural and economic exchange between the East and the West. Leading institutes of the world regard the Dunhuang collection as an important source of studying Chinese culture, with a stream called ‘Dunhuangology’. This afternoon visit the West Thousand Buddha Cave. Overnight: Dunhuang Grand Soluxe Hotel – Elite Room