"Dinosaurs Along The Silk Road" -- Sinofossa 2009 15: Dunhuang & The Mogao Grottoes

After Yumen, we drove another four or so hours to Dunhuang, near the western end of Gansu. Dunhuang is a big tourist town within China because it's adjacent to the Mogao Grottoes, a historically famous site where a cliff side is riddled with artificial caves carved out over the last several centuries. Depending on how much money went into each cave, they contain Buddha statues of various sizes and/or elaborate art. Hailu got us an absolutely fabulous tour guide who took us into several of the grottoes, all of which were amazing and beautiful. I was very pleasantly surprised by the site (given that I'm not much into archeological stuff) and it was, frankly, a highlight of the trip for me. I'd go back in a heartbeat! The single downside about the place was that they didn't allow cameras inside, so I have no pictures from inside any of the grottoes! I understand this -- light degrades the paint and colors in the grottoes, so I empathize -- but the lack of photographic souvenirs is kind of sad...