Dunhuang
 

I decided to go to Dunhuang this July.

My question: how does one get there? by plane, train, bus? and from where? Xian or Beijing?

If plane, what airline serve the Dunhuang airport?

Harmon

Most tourists fly into Lanzhou, capital of Ganzu Province, and then take the train to Dunhuang station (1,100km, 13 hours; ~ 5 "express" trains per day: 3 overnight, 2 daytime) and then transfer to buses.

But there's also a recently expanded airport at Dunhuang. China Northwest (subsidiary of China Eastern) flies there from Xian once a day. www.cnwa.com There may be other air services.

Thank you. This helps.

Harman: Can't wait to see a trip report after you return. Please post it under "China". Have a great time!

We were in Dunhuang 1 1/2 years ago. Make sure you go the night market. People have folding lawn chairs they set up, then sell you tea and fruits. It is on of my most magical memories.

topping for harman

don't know if anybody still cares, but my travelogue can be found at
http://home.att.net/~kharman/GOBI/index.html

And thank you for all of you that helped me with this trip. Hong Kong part went so smoothly!

Interesting travelogue. You're the first person I know who fly in and out of the new Dunhuang airport. Those flights sound a little bit on the expensive side. I guess that's why many tour groups continue to use the train from Lanzhou.

The price for those flights on Expedia were $208 (from Xian to Dunhuang) and $335 (from Dunhuang to Beijing, with one stop. My flight was non-stop--and is not listed on Expedia).

I paid around $160 each for these flights...so relatively speaking, it wasn't too bad.

The plane was almost empty on both flights...so you're right. Not many people are using them.

and rkkwan...thank you.