Take the dunes in the last two hours of light, with your ankles covered

Mingsha Mountain is a furnace at midday and glorious in the evening, when the sand goes orange and the ridge above Crescent Lake fills with people waiting for the sun to drop. Tickets are usually valid for several days, which suits a sunrise-and-sunset plan.

Rent the orange shoe covers at the gate — sand gets in everything otherwise — and keep your phone in a bag between photographs. Climbing a dune is much harder than it looks; take the wooden ladder path.