This is a long way for two cities and both of them earn it. Dunhuang is two days — the caves, the dunes, and the desert forts out west — and Kashgar is three, with the Karakoram Highway as the reason to stay a fourth. Between them is a train ride measured in days rather than hours, which is the honest cost of the route and part of what it is. Book the Mogao Caves before anything else.
At a glance
- Day 1Mogao Caves → Shazhou night market
- Day 2Yumenguan → Yardang landforms → Mingsha Shan → Crescent Lake
- Day 3Dunhuang → Kashgar by rail
- Day 4Kashgar Old Town → Id Kah Mosque → handicraft street
- Day 5Sunday Grand Bazaar → livestock market
- Day 6Kashgar → White Sand Lake → Karakul Lake → Muztagh Ata
- Day 7Handicraft street → the night market → the airport
Day 1
The caves, and nothing after them
Mogao Caves → Shazhou night market
Two things decide this day and both happen before you arrive. First, there are two tickets. The full one — around ¥238 in season, ¥140 out of it — buys two films at the digital centre, the shuttle, eight caves and a guide with a headset. The cheap one, sold as an emergency ticket at about ¥100 and ¥55, buys the shuttle and four caves with no films and no real commentary; most of the people writing that Mogao disappointed them bought that one. Six thousand full tickets a day, released thirty days ahead at seven in the morning, real-name, no changes and no refunds. Second: go to the Digital Exhibition Centre first, not to the caves — people navigate straight to the cliff and lose the day. Which caves you are shown is assigned and they are all worth it. No photography inside, enforced with fines and a booking ban. Anyone outside offering a private guide, a secret cave or a fast track is selling you nothing.
Day 2
Dunes, a lake that should not exist, and the old frontier
Yumenguan → Yardang landforms → Mingsha Shan → Crescent Lake
Take the western run in the morning while it is cool: Yumenguan, a rammed-earth Han-dynasty gate standing alone in the Gobi, and the yardang badlands beyond it — wind-carved ridges, an hour and a half further out, and worth the drive if you have the day. Come back for the dunes at the end of the afternoon. Mingsha Shan and Crescent Lake are a ten-minute taxi from town, the camels are as touristy as they look, and climbing a dune for the sunset is one of the few genuinely unforgettable hours on this whole route.
Day 3
West, for a very long time
Dunhuang → Kashgar by rail
There is no quick way to do this. The rail journey west runs through Xinjiang for the better part of a day and a night depending on the connection, and the landscape out of the window — Gobi, then oasis, then Gobi again — is a fair part of what you came for. Book a sleeper. Xinjiang runs on a later daily rhythm than inland China: shops and breakfast places open late, and the sun sets hours after the clock says it should.
Day 4
The old town, which is the point
Kashgar Old Town → Id Kah Mosque → handicraft street
The old town is mud-brick lanes, painted doors and workshops, and it repays wandering rather than a list. The western half is quiet and photographs well; the eastern half is where the night market and the daily opening ceremony are. Id Kah is the largest mosque in China: take your shoes off, keep your voice down, and women should cover their heads — some entrances lend a scarf. Eat polo, samsa off a tandoor wall, and red-willow skewers.
Day 5
Market day
Sunday Grand Bazaar → livestock market
If your days allow it, be in Kashgar on a Sunday. The Grand Bazaar runs all week and doubles on Sundays, and the livestock market on the edge of town is the older institution: sheep, cattle and horses changing hands the way they have for centuries, with the buying done by hand signal. Go in the morning. It is dusty, loud, entirely unstaged, and the best two hours in the city.
Day 6
Up the Karakoram Highway
Kashgar → White Sand Lake → Karakul Lake → Muztagh Ata
This is the day people come to Xinjiang for. Arrange the border permit in Kashgar city beforehand — bring your original passport and go in the morning, when the office is quicker — and take a small group or a private car rather than a shared dash, because the whole value of this road is being able to stop. White Sand Lake is best from the north shore. Karakul sits under Muztagh Ata at 3,600 metres, so this is a high day: sun cream at factor fifty, sunglasses, and a warm layer whatever the forecast in the city said.
Day 7
A last morning, and out
Handicraft street → the night market → the airport
Spend the morning on the coppersmiths' and instrument-makers' street, where things are still made rather than sold, and buy from the person who made it. Then the night market before your flight if the timing allows. Kashgar is not a place to tick off; the people who enjoy it are the ones who left a morning with nothing in it.
Eat like you mean it
- Lamb polo (pilaf)Rice cooked in lamb fat with carrot and raisin. The staple, eaten at lunch.
- Samsa baked piesSlapped onto the inside of a tandoor and prised off crisp. Eat them hot.
- Naan breadSold from stacks on every corner and used as a plate as often as a food.
- Laghman noodlesHand-pulled, with mutton, peppers and tomato. The other staple.
- Pomegranate juicePressed in front of you on the street, and worth every one of the yuan.
- Hami melonIn Dunhuang, in season, and better than any melon has a right to be.
Where to stay
- Dunhuang · Shazhou night marketTwo nights in the middle of town, walking distance to dinner.
- Kashgar · Old Town, Id KahInside the lanes, which is where you want to wake up.
- Kashgar · Seman RoadThe traveller strip: agencies for the Karakoram, and cheaper beds.
- Kashgar · Renmin Road new townParking, comfort and space, at the cost of the atmosphere.
Before you go
- There are two Mogao tickets. The full one includes the films, eight caves and a guide; the cheap "emergency" ticket is four caves and no commentary, and it is what most of the disappointed reviews are describing.
- Full tickets are released thirty days ahead at 07:00, capped at six thousand a day, real-name, and neither refundable nor changeable. Set an alarm.
- Go to the Digital Exhibition Centre first, not to the caves. Navigating straight to the cliff wastes the booking.
- No photography inside the caves. It is enforced with a fine and a ban from booking again.
- Ignore anyone selling a private guide, a "secret cave" or a fast track at Mogao. None of them exist.
- Carry your passport everywhere in Xinjiang. Hotels, petrol stations and road checkpoints all ask for it.
- Arrange the border permit in Kashgar city before going up towards Tashkurgan, with your original passport, in the morning.
- Xinjiang keeps a later daily rhythm than inland China — breakfast places open late and the light lasts well into the evening. Do not set off at dawn expecting to be fed.
- Factor-fifty sun cream, sunglasses, a hat and lip balm. The ultraviolet on the Pamir road is at a level most visitors have never experienced.
- Do not pack the days. Everything around Kashgar is hours of driving, and the road is the part worth having.
One honest thing — Mogao has two tickets and the cheap one shows half as much with no commentary. Full tickets go thirty days ahead at 07:00 and sell out. Kashgar and the Pamirs need paperwork — carry your passport, and arrange a border permit in the city before heading up to Tashkurgan.
