Mingsha Mountain Crescent Lake Nature Park

The Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Lake Nature Park is located at southern outskirt of Dunhuang city, about 6 kilometers away from central city (Shazhou Night Market), 4 kilometers from Dunhuang Museum, 12 kilometers from Mogao Caves, 75 kilometers from Yadan National Geopark.

How to Get to Mingsha Mountain

From the city center (Dunhuang Municipal Government), there is a straight avenue, named Mingsha Road, leading to the gate of the park. It is only a short driving of 6 kilometers. For independent travelers, you can take the public bus No. 3 from Panxuan Road (1 RMB). Travelers can eave take mini-bus directly from Dunhuang Airport or Dunhuang Train Station to the park, which takes only 3 RMB. Convenient and fast taxi is also available, which costs about 15 RMB.

Dunhuang Mingsha Mountain (Echo Sand Mountain) is a sand mountain range which stretches from the cliff where the Mogao Caves locates, to the Danghe Dam on the west. It is about 40km in length, 20km in width, 100m in average height. The highest altitude is 1650m.

The Mingsha Mountain is composed of tinny hyaline sands of five different colors – red, yellow, blue, white and black, and winds its way up and down showing different shapes. Some of the sand dunes stand like a golden pyramid, some lie as the fish scale, some wave like a snake.

The biggest feature of Mingsha Mountain is that the sand echoes here. When a strong wind blows, you can hear loud sound like roaring made by the moving sands. While when light wind blows, the sand echoes like some gentle sound of orchestral music. This is how the mountain gained the name of Mingsha (Echo Sand Mountain).

So how can the sand dune echo? Actually sand echoing is a spectacular geographic phenomenon. In some desert or sand dunes, due to the special climate and geography, sand particles mainly the quartz vibrates, move up and down and rotate in the airflow created by wind. All these movements together create many cavities as diabolos. The wind blows through the cavities and rubs with sands, finally forms the echoing sound.

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The earliest Western record about the Crescent Lake is the book The Gobi Desert wrote by Mildred Cable & Francesca French. While traveled in Dunhuang region, they visited the Crescent Lake, and recorded in their travelogues - "All around us we saw tier on tier of lofty sand-hills, giving the lie to our quest, yet when, with a final desperate effort, we hoisted ourselves over the last ridge and looked down on what lay beyond, we saw the lake below, and its beauty was entrancing."

You may how did the lake originate in the desert, and how can it never dry out? There are so far two different explanations but none of them is verified. Some people indicate it is the remained lake of ancient river – Danghe River. Danghe River changed its way, and most of its watercourses were covered by sand mountains. While the Crescent Lake region is in the lower position, and still can get water supply from underground water. Some people say there is a fault on the southern side of the lake edge. The water supply is from the underwater from the higher fault.

Then how can the lake never be covered by the moving sands? Because the mountains on the southern and northern sides of the Crescent Lake are much higher than then mountains on the eastern and western sides. The winds blow from west to east or from east to west will carry the falling sands up to the back sides of mountains. So the sands can never move to the lake.

Enjoying the stunning desert landscape, exploring the legendary stories of Crescent Lake – these are not the only things to do in the park. The specific nature here offers you many exciting and interesting outdoor activities for you to have fun.

Camel Riding

Camel riding is a very spectacular experience. Currently, only the Mingshashan & Crescent Lake Scenic Area provides camel riding program. Riding on a tall, and marching forward the sand dunes. This is what the ancient travelers did on the Silk Road. The camel riding site is located inside the scenic area, which means you have to purchase a ticket to get in the scenic area first if you want to ride camel. The price of Mingshashan Camel Ride is about ￥100 / per person / per camel, excluding the entrance fee and other activities in Mingshashan & Crescent Lake Scenic Area.>>Learn More about the Camel Riding at Mingsha Mountain

Desert Camping

To enjoy the best of the sunset, sunrise and starry sky here, from late April to mid-October, you can choose to camp in the desert. The camping base is located at the back of Mingsha Mountain. After you sign up for camping, the camping base will send a car to pick you up in the urban area. Desert BBQ and Buffet Hot Pot are offered as dinner during the camping.>>Learn More about Desert Camping at Mingsha Mountain

Slide down from the top of dunes with a sandboard to experience speed and passion, and listen to how the sands really echo and move in winds. You will experience the Sand Sliding activity during evening time around 20:30 when the sand has cooled off from the heat of daytime.The sand sliding charges ￥15.

Glider

If you want to see the stretching sand dunes of the Mingsha Mountain and panoramic views of the Crescent Lake, you can try flying the glider. The journey charges by distance, usually from ￥160-1600. There are also sightseeing small helicopters of which the prices are higher than the gliders.

Desert Motorcycle Riding

Riding a motorcycle to traverse the up-and-down rolling dunes is the most exciting activity in the desert. You will ride from the foot of Mingsha Mountain to get to the top of the mountain to enjoy the vastness and beauty of Mingshashan Desert, then ride the same way back. The price is about CNY 120 per person.

Note: The actual price for the activities may be subject to change in different seasons. Please do not hesitate to contact us for the updated info!

Sunrise and sunset are fabulous here. To catch the sunrise, travelers need to climb up the top of Mingsha Mountain before 6:00 AM. You should get to the park early, because it costs much time and energy to climb the sand mountain. The western sand hill near to the Crescent Lake is the best location for watching sunrise. Sunset usually happens later here, especially in summer days. It comes around 20:30 – 21:00. Travelers usually get into the park around 17:00 because the temperature of both the air and sands are very high, and the sun light is very strong.

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It usually takes 2~4 days to cover the main highlights in Dunhuang. Just like the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, the 2000-year-old Mogao Grottoes is the essence in a Dunhuang trip. Here you can admire thousands of colorfully painted Buddhist statues and have an eye-feast on the exquisite mural paintings. After that, you can go to the Echoing Sand Mountains to have fun in the vast desert and find out why Crescent Lake has never dried up for so many years. On the next day, go explore the remote wild Gobi desert landscape and several legendary historical sites such as Yumen Pass (Jade Gate Pass) which used to be a military defensive pass as well as an important border for international trade along the ancient Silk Road, and Yadan National Geological Park which features Yardang landforms in distinct shapes as you can imagine like Mongolian Bao, Stone Bird, Peacock and others. If you have more days, you can take an in-depth Gansu tour to Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiayuguan or travel a little farther to the beautiful Xian, Qinghai, Urumqi, and Kashgar.

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