[Travel Notes] My third day in the Northwest alone

The third day in Gansu

Being lazy, I finally started to update my push again o(╥﹏╥)o. This time I continued the unfinished solo trip to the Northwest and started to narrate the next story. It just so happens that this is also today last year~

Depart from hotel to bus station in the morning

On April 9, 2019, my third day in the Northwest, I got up early in the morning and faced the morning light after 7 o'clock, preparing to go to the bus station across the road to take the bus to the next stop - Dunhuang.

As early as when I was in Nanjing, I contacted the travel agency online without shopping around. The reason was that I decided because of their good service attitude. Being inexperienced, I accumulated more travel experience in the following years, and I will be even better at it the next time I sign up for a group tour!

The travel agency was in Dunhuang, and following her arrangements, I bought the early morning bus from Jiuquan to Dunhuang at 8 a.m. at the bus station the day before. I waited at the bus station early at around seven o'clock and filled my stomach with the dry food I bought in the supermarket yesterday.

More than 5 hours of driving - scenery along the way

It’s off! I happened to get a window seat!

The car gradually drove out of the center of Jiuquan and drove forward along the snow-covered Qilian Mountains. Thinking about it, I will soon see the Mogao Grottoes in Chinese textbooks and the dreamy desert. With excitement, I took out my mobile phone and kept looking out the window to take pictures of the wonderful scenery along the way.

I mentioned in the previous push that I came to the Northwest wearing spring clothes. At that time, Nanjing was already hot to over 20 degrees, and when I looked around, the people sitting in the car were still wearing winter clothes.

What made me despair was that this bus, known as the "Luxury Flying Sky", did not turn on the air conditioner. As I drove under the Qilian Snow Mountains, I deeply felt the cold air outside penetrated the car body and invaded my legs. Afraid of freezing my legs. The feeling at that time is still vivid in my memory a year later.

Due to the temperature difference between inside and outside, the car windows were always covered with thick fog. I took out a roll of toilet paper I brought and kept wiping the windows so that I could always see the changing scenery outside the window clearly.

This is a hat I bought for 12 yuan at Jiuquan Free Trade City the day before. When I tried it on, I just thought it was good-looking and very cheap, so I bought it. Little did I know that it played a huge role in the subsequent journey. effect. Here, I must give it a big close-up hehe.

I like the scenery along the way in Suzhou District, Jiuquan City, the continuous snow-capped mountains and the blue sky.

Scenery along the way to Jiayuguan City.

The scenery along Yumen City is full of rotating "big windmill" ducks~

We went to an extremely dilapidated toilet in Guazhou County and continued our journey. At every stop along the way, when someone got off the bus, I would follow and take a look at my luggage. I can only rely on myself to be careful when going out. After all, my small camera is still in the suitcase and I am worried about it being taken away by bad guys.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the bus finally drove into Dunhuang City. If I felt hungry along the way, I took out the snacks (mainly jelly and small bread) I had prepared in my schoolbag to satisfy my hunger. The temperature gradually increased, and I felt very comfortable.

Arrive in Dunhuang - visit Mogao Grottoes and Mingsha Mountain

After getting off the bus at Dunhuang Bus Station, I found the tour guide who received me. Since other tourists had been in Dunhuang the day before, their itinerary today was to visit Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring in the morning, and visit Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes in the afternoon. And I am quite special, so I can only go to Mogao Grottoes alone now, and then go to Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring.

I laughed, why did I report it to a travel agency, but in the end I was still alone?

Maybe this is life...

I originally thought that this tour guide had become my personal tour guide, but after buying the ticket for me, she let me go in and play by myself (omitting a little curse word here...). It was only in hindsight that I realized that she had tricked me...

But it doesn't matter, I can still play alone. After entering with the tickets, we first went to watch the movie, so that we can fully understand the history of Dunhuang and Mogao Grottoes. Audio and video recording are prohibited throughout the entire process, otherwise we will be stopped by the staff. Despite repeated emphasis, the guy sitting in front of me was still recording and was stopped by the beautiful staff member. The entire documentary is breathtaking and the visual effects are quite shocking. After watching it, I immediately had the urge to enter the Mogao Grottoes to take a look.

After watching the movie, we took the bus arranged by the scenic spot and headed to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes. After getting off the bus, I met a tour guide from another travel agency (I am a professional tour guide), and the tour guide included me in his group...emmm, it's not a big problem...

The scenery along the way is really good. The Mogao Grottoes are full of poplar trees. Blue sky, white clouds, and poplar trees, just take a photo and it becomes a landscape painting.

Finally, when we arrived at the gate of Mogao Grottoes, the travel agency prepared to take a group photo, so I left dejectedly. An uncle and I helped each other take a photo in front of the door, but in the photo, I was blown away by the strong wind...

When we queued up to enter the Mogao Grottoes, there were many professional guides and ladies who gave us headsets. They would lead a group in, and each group would be randomly assigned a route. There are a total of 735 caves in the Mogao Grottoes, and only about 70 are open. We can only visit about 10 caves at a time. Some of them are must-sees for every tourist, and the others are randomly arranged. . Fortunately, it was off-season when I went there. The tour guide said that you might not be able to see as much during peak season.

Every time the guide took us into a cave, we had to get a key to open it on the spot. It was pitch black inside, and of course, taking photos and videos was prohibited. The guide will shine a flashlight and guide us to see the murals and Buddha statues clearly while explaining. She will lock the door after we come out.

Among them, the one that impressed me the most was the Buddhist Scripture Cave, and there was also a giant Buddha in the cave I don’t remember. The ninth floor cannot be visited due to maintenance. In the Tibetan Scripture Cave, I also saw a teacher leading students to provide on-site guidance and teaching. It is speculated that students of Dunhuang Studies may be conducting field research. To this end, I also learned about the Dunhuang Studies major, which is really an admirable major.

I hope to have the opportunity to experience the mysterious Mogao Grottoes again.

The scenery taken during the visit. Sometimes when I see other teams visiting other caves, I can't help but run in and have a look. However, there is no voice of the commentator in the earphones, so I can only listen to the commentator by getting closer. arrive. In order to keep up with his small team, he could only take a few glances and leave.

It's a nine-story building. You can't see the ninth floor clearly from the bottom. You can only see it if you go out and stand far away. It is the landmark building of the Mogao Grottoes, and it is what I saw in the Chinese language book. The largest Buddha of the Mogao Grottoes is enshrined inside. However, it was under maintenance at the time, so I could only take pictures outside.

After going out, I finally counted the nine floors in the square, and left the last photo of the Mogao Grottoes, ready to leave to find my boring tour guide.

I heard a familiar dialect on the road, and when I said hello, it turned out to be friends from Yixing~ They said that a group of Liyang people came here to play yesterday. I remembered that when I flew back to Nanjing from Lijiang, the person sitting behind me was also from Liyang. What a coincidence, there are fellow countrymen everywhere...

I went back to the ticket office where I started, found the tour guide, and asked her to take me to the last stop of the day - Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring. Before this, I had never made any specific guides. I only had a general understanding of several famous scenic spots in Gansu, and I had not seen relevant pictures on the Internet. Due to the off-season, the scenic spot has given students a preferential policy of free admission to Mingsha Mountain. Happy~

When I arrived at the gate of Mingsha Mountain, I was pulled by an old woman to buy a pair of shoe covers for ten yuan. She said that my shoes would break if I put them in the desert. I didn't believe it at first, but I finally bought them. They ignored me and didn't remind me to wear shoe covers. Later, when I entered the desert, I saw that everyone was wearing the same shoe covers. Could it be that they were issued uniformly by the travel agency? Why didn't I? Anyway, I later found out that I had been cheated! (A little swear word is omitted here again...) It's not because of the 10 yuan, but because sand got into my shoe covers. My favorite pair of shoes also lost a layer of black color due to the friction of the sand, while others The shoe covers are of better quality.

I admit that before I came to the desert, I really advised myself to be careful. After all, it is a desert. The scene of Tang Monk passing through the desert while seeking Buddhist scriptures has always been engraved in my mind. No one thought that I would see this desert on the wide road, and I couldn't help laughing.

Camel riding at your own expense, 100 yuan, I decided to try it after thinking about it. The tour guide said that she would wait for me outside and call her when the fun was over. Let’s go. Because of my limited mobility, she also asked her to take away my camera first. Alas, I could only take pictures with my mobile phone.

Wearing the only equipment - the shoe covers bought for 10 yuan, you are fully armed!

There are five people in a team and five camels in a team. I was alone, so I was asked to sit first. The other four were friends from Guangdong. I met so many Guangdong friends along the way. It was not easy to travel thousands of miles away. This is our camel and camel rider.

The camel leader told us to hurry up and take good care of our belongings. He joked that they had no shortage of mobile phones and the most picked up ones were mobile phones. I was so scared that I held on tightly and didn’t dare to take out my phone to take pictures at first.

The camel is very tall, and I was really nervous when it first got up. Later, the camel rider asked us to sway to the rhythm of the camel's walking and enjoy the process. Sometimes my camel turns around and kisses my leg, which scares me! I was so scared that I yelled: Ah - it bites me! The camel rider said calmly: Where did it bite you? Do you think it's biting you? Isn't this kissing you? My friends from Guangdong were amused~ (Slipping away...) Sometimes the camel wouldn't leave, and I even casually said "drive"... (Camel: It's too difficult for me.)

These are my friends from Guangdong. The camel driver is taking pictures of them. It costs 20 yuan per person. I refuse.

The camel is so cute too~O(∩_∩)O~

It's so cute, why would it bite me?

It didn’t take much time to walk around, but the experience was quite good. After coming down, I took one last photo of the camels. Hey, their equipment is so cool~

I am the only one who keeps walking forward to see the Crescent Moon Spring. From here, prepare to climb up and watch the sunset on Mingsha Mountain.

It’s really hard to climb up. We’re almost at the top. Let’s take a selfie to commemorate it~ My hands are swollen like pig’s trotters…

The newly dyed yellow hair is golden in the sun o(*￣︶￣*)o~

Spring

Sunshine

I’ve reached the top, so I asked other tourists to take some pretentious photos for me~

They were all waiting for the sunset, and they also saw friends who were taking pictures. Unfortunately, my little G didn’t come up with me~

Sit back and wait for the sunset... pat the sand beside your feet~

I also want to be as handsome and dashing as him~

It was almost 8 o'clock in the evening, and the sunset gradually came. Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring under the setting sun were all in sight. It was so satisfying!

Thinking about it, I am very lucky. If I went to visit Mingsha Mountain in the morning with that group of tour groups and Mogao Grottoes in the afternoon, I would not be able to see the sunset in the desert. By some strange combination of circumstances, I was rewarded with the beautiful scenery in front of me, and I can slowly walk down~

Drone flying is prohibited in Mingsha Mountain. I guess there are two reasons: first, I am afraid that the drone will accidentally hit the camel, which will frighten the camel and hit the tourists; second, if the drone runs out of power or malfunctions, it will be easily lost. If the tourists want to If you accidentally enter a desert area that is forbidden to tourists, you will lose more than just your property.

The number of tourists gradually decreased, the sky gradually darkened, and the temperature dropped. A person walked towards the gate alone.

Mingsha Mountain at 8:30 in the evening.

A big brother who, like me, is still taking pictures of the moon.

At 8:30 pm on April 9, 2019, I was playing in the sand alone in the desert? ? ?

Take one last look at Mingsha Mountain at night and prepare to find my tour guide.

End of the day's trip

Back to the hotel, the desert-themed hotel is so spacious and comfortable. In the off-season, hotels in Northwest China are cheap and comfortable~

There is a bustling street downstairs. I crossed the street and ate fried noodles. I forgot what kind of meat it was. It was a bit expensive. I scrolled through the Moments and reminisced about the fulfilling and beautiful day in the Northwest~

[Travel Notes] My third day in the Northwest alone

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