Dunhuang

I spent most of the day to day at the absolutely incredible MoGao Grottoes just outside of Dunhuang. Enumerating the countless Buddhas and bodhisattvas is beyond my powers and there are no cameras allowed, so you'll all just have to come here yourselves if you want to take a look at anything beyond the fragment above, or use your imaginations (and google).

The area is quite tightly regulated, which is fair enough considering the damage wrought to the murals and sculptures through the depredations of the Western "adventurers" who stole most of the ancient manuscripts in the early 20th century, and monotheists of various persuasions (Muslim, Maoist) who have defaced the 'idols' within. Strangely enough, however, our guide's first priority seemed to be having us all appreciate that the female apsaras (Buddhist flying angels) in the later murals could fly "much faster through the sky" than the male apsaras featured in caves from earler periods. Seriously, this was repeated in almost every cave...

Though what stuck with me most was perhaps the comment by my taxi driver on the way to the caves, that 35 years ago the locals were all eating bark from the trees to stave off their hunger, so scarce was food.

Tomorrow on to Lanzhou, the most polluted city in the world, will no doubt drop a line from there...