玉门关

Really lovely location to visit - so much history in such a beautiful, challenging environment. We went in January which was bitterly cold, but with good Winter clothing it was fine and gave a real sense of the location’s isolation. Plus there was almost no-one else there at 9:30am, so we had the whole place to ourselves. The visit is well organised - you get taken to three different sites by bus, and then get to explore each place. Sometimes wanted a little longer in each location. But it’s such a beautiful place to be, and I loved it.

The start of silk road, quite windy and cold starting from november, but much less people, could take nice photo easily without blocking

We went in the middle of a sandstorm like idiots. On the plus side we were the only two people there. You really need someone to explain this site to you otherwise learn to read Chinese. You enter the park and pay for a ticket plus a shuttle ride. Shuttle brings you to the Han wall and also a grainery. See this and also yangguan in the south to see both major gates.

Historical and natural beauty. The visit is a but in rush because of the official bus schedule

Home location near buy .

Hot (45 deg in August), but in the background there's Xinjiang. Around 2h from Dunhuang, in the middle of nothing.

A lot of history

You could take a taxi from town for about 250rmb, they'll wait for you on your return back to town for about 300+rmb depending on the time waiting. It takes over an hour to get there from Dunhuang.