Climate & Weather Report

Introduction

Dunhuang Oasis at the western end of the Hexi Corridor was the terminal of the eastern section of the Silk Road (from Chang'an to Dunhuang) and the starting point of the middle section of the Silk Road (from Dunhuang to Congling). An administration was set up at Dunhuang in A.D. 111. Today this tourist destination attracts people with its tourist destination attracts people with its numerous historic sites such as Yumenguan Pass, ruins of Yangguan Pass, Wuwa Pond, Sanwei Mountain, Ringing-Sand Hill, Crescent-Moon Pool and the many grotto carvings and murals. The Ringing-sand Area is one of China's key tourist attractions.                       

The Western Thousand Buddha Cave

The western one thousand Buddhas cave is located on the bluff on the north bank of Dang River, 33 kilometers to the southwest of Dunhuang City. 22 existent caves were built in Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, and Song Dynasties. They contain 910 square meters of frescos, 53 color statues. As a result of wash by the flow of the river, the bank has collapsed; many caves have only rear half.

The One-Thousand Buddha Cave is an important component of Dunhuang art. Although most of them have been rehabilitated, they preserve part or most part of the original caves. Although only a few caves survive, they have their own features. Some people reckon that the original caves would be far more than the existent ones, but for being washed by the river, the bluff could not be completely preserved. Here are deep valley and dense forests-the environment is quiet. It can be called a "paradise outside the secular world". In 1961, the Cave was listed as national protected cultural relic, and was put under the jurisdiction of Dunhuang Cultural Relic Research Institute.                                                        

Mogao Grottos

The Mogo Grottoes is usually called "One thousand Buddha cave", a worldwide famous Buddhist relic, is located in the eastern slope of Ming Sha (Sand Ringing ) Hill, 25 kilometers southeast of Duanhuang city. It faces the Dangquan in its front, and the Sanwei Hill in the east.

According to records in inscriptions of Tang Dynasty, Mo Gao Cave was inaugurated in 366 AD. The project of creating caves and making Buddhist statues continued for one thousand years by 14th century, throughout Dynasties of Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Hui Hu, Western Xia, Yuan. It is a complex of caves spreading 1680 meters long from south to north including more than 700 caves, of them 492 caves contain more than 2000 color statues and 45000 square meters of frescos and five wooden structured eaves. The Mo Gao Cave is by far the most well-preserved Buddhist relic in the world, with the largest scale, longest history, and richest content.

Caves in the Mogao Grottoes are cavern constructions containing color statues and frescos. It reflects ancient social historic figures. The excellent and fine color sculpture and frescos systematically reflect the artistic styles of all those times and their evolution. They are precious and valuable in terms of history, art and science and technology.

Discovered in 1900 in the scripture cave are documents, embroidery, satin pictures, paper picture from 4th to 14th centuries, totally more than 40 thousand pieces. Most of them are transcripts in Han characters; a few are printed copies. Of the Han texts, more than 90% are Buddhist scripture, besides, are traditional classic chronicle works and official and private documents. Besides Han characters, there are also characters of ethnic minorities. These discovered documents are important materials for studying history, geography, religions, economy, politics, nations, literature, art, science and technology of China and Central Asia. The findings from Mogao Grottoes underwent incessant disasters. A great deal of relics and some frescos and color statues were looted and transported to their countries by England, France, Japan, Russia, the United States. They scatter in libraries and museums of many countries.

Since the early years of this century, "Dunhuang study " focused on the unearthed documents from the scripture cave and art in the caves has been prosperous in the world; it has become a hot subject all over the world.

In 1961, Mogao Grottoes was listed as national protected key relic by the State Council, and in 1987, it was listed in the World Cultural and Natural Heritage by the United Nations.     

Ringing-Sand Hill lies six kilometers south of Dunhuang Proper. It is about 40 kilometers from east to west, 20 kilometers from south to north and 10 meters depth. When one slides down the hill the friction causes a whistling sound.       

Moon Crescent Lake

The lake is 6km south of the center of Dunhuang at the Singing Sand Mountains, where the oasis meets the desert. Spring water trickles up into a depression between huge sand dunes, forming a small, crescent-shaped pond.