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Dunhunag is situated at the westernmost end of the Hexi Corridor, located between Urumgi and Yumen. It was the most important station on the Silk Road and was once called Sha. It has an area of 31,200 square kilometers and a population of around 110,000. The average elevation is about 1,100 meters and mean temperature of 9.3℃.
Dunhuang is the scenic highlight of the Silk Road in China. The name Dunhuang originally meant "prospering, flourishing"-- a hint that Dunhuang must once have been an important city. Its position at the intersection of two trade routes was what made Dunhuang flourish. The coming and going of horse and camel caravans carried new thoughts, ideas, arts and sciences to the East and West.
The Dunhuang Grottoes include the Mogao Grottoes, the Yulin Grottoes, the West Qianfo Grottoes, and the Lesser Qianfo Grottoes. Of them the Mogao Grottoes are the best known. The oldest cave dates back to 366 A.D. and the most recent one is from the 1500's.
The Mogao Grottoes or Caves of One-Thousand Buddhas which is situated 25 kilometers southeast of Dunhuang City is a world-famous art treasury, with invaluable murals and sculptures made between the 4th and the 14th centuries.
The 492 grottoes that remain today contain 45,000 square meters of murals, over 2,400 painted sculptures, over 4,000 flying apsarses, 5 wooden structures of the Tang and the Song Dynasties, and thousands of lotus-shaped pillars and floral paving tiles. A gigantic, elegant palace of art, the whole grotto complex is the world's largest, best-preserved treasure house of Buddhist scriptures, sculptures, murals, and architectural designs. It has long enjoyed the reputation of being the Bright Pearl of the Oriental Art.
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