Dunhuang Devil Town

 

 

Dunhuang Devil Town 
On a day out from the oasis of Dunhuang, we joined a tour of 2 other 4WD (Beijing made BJCs) to visit the Dunhuang Devil Town. From the start, it was clear the two other drivers were not the owners of the cars as they drove through the oasis city at high speed with no regard for the road conditions (or for pedestrians for that matter). Our first stop after about 100 km of dirt road was Yumen pass, a gate to the Silk Road also called Jade gate through which all trader and traveler caravans would pass.

 

From there on, it was desert tracks and rocks and and we did not want to drive at their speeds. We would lose sight of the two cars who would wait for us at difficult passages to make sure we didn't get stuck behind. After about two hours of dune and desert driving, we arrived at the "devil town". This particular site was not a real old inhabited city as many lie peppered around this area. There were just very impressive rock formations in the shape of an old city. Visibility was not good that day and there is very little to see from the pictures we took. The desert views however were splendid.

 

 

Views of the Devil Town near Dunhuang

 

Visibility was poor for a very good reason : a sandstorm was picking up. As we took the last pictures, the wind had picked up and was blowing very hard. We decided to leave. For a reason we were not able to understand, the two other cars sped away and we were left behind in a real sandstorm. We nearly got stuck in the sand on many occasions despite our shortest 4WD gears (our tyres are not sand tyres) and were furious we had been left behind. With the wind blowing so hard sand would hit our car like raindrops, we were not able to see where the tracks were going. Had we taken a wrong direction, it could have taken days to find us. We got stuck in sand a few hours later when the sandstorm had diminished. 

 

As the sandstorm picks up (left). In the sandstorm after having reached the main road again (right)

 

 

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