Dunhuang

For a thousand years travellers on the Silk Road stopped here to pray before the desert, and the caves they paid for at Mogao hold the finest Buddhist wall paintings in the world. Visits are strictly managed, in small groups with a guide, and the ticket is the one thing about the trip you must arrange ahead.

The town itself is easy: a grid of streets, a night market, poplar trees along the irrigation channels. The dunes of Mingsha Mountain start at the southern edge, with the Crescent Lake in a hollow among them.

Summer is hot and busy; winter is cold and empty, with cheaper tickets and more caves open. The shoulder months are the answer. The desert forts and yardang landscape to the west make a long, wonderful day.

Dunhuang (DNH) airport, 13 kilometres east, has flights from Xi'an, Lanzhou, Beijing and, in season, Shanghai and Chengdu. Dunhuang station is next to the airport: trains from Lanzhou take seven to eight hours by day, or there is an overnight sleeper; Zhangye is about four hours, Xining around seven. Liuyuan South, on the main high-speed line, is 130 kilometres away and a two-hour transfer.

Donkey meat with yellow noodles is the town dish, and better than it sounds. Apricot-skin water is the drink, cold and sour. Lamb in every form, hu yang men bing (flatbread braised with mutton), and dried melon from the oasis farms. The Shazhou night market is the place; the restaurants along Yangguan Road are the quieter option.