Yumenguan (Jade Gate)

Yumenguan (Jade Gate)
Feb 19, 2010 20:22
CROSIS Points: Join Date: Sep 5, 2007 Status: offline	I am just planning my next trip to China. This time I want to see the western end of the wall. One place I definitely want to go is to Yumenguan and the nearby Danggushu Han Wall. As people will know these are a bit out of town from Dunhuang. I notice on Google there is a little village a couple of kilometres from the Jade Gate. Can anyone tell me if there is a small hotel or village accommodation i can stay at? This way i could get up early and see the sunrise over the gate.

Feb 19, 2010 20:22

CROSIS
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Join Date: Sep 5, 2007
Status: offline

I am just planning my next trip to China. This time I want to see the western end of the wall. One place I definitely want to go is to Yumenguan and the nearby Danggushu Han Wall. As people will know these are a bit out of town from Dunhuang.

I notice on Google there is a little village a couple of kilometres from the Jade Gate. Can anyone tell me if there is a small hotel or village accommodation i can stay at? This way i could get up early and see the sunrise over the gate.

Feb 26, 2010 01:03

LEMONCACTUS
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Join Date: Dec 8, 2005
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Hi Crosis,

I did the Yumen Gate, parts of the old wall and Yadan (weird rock formations) in a (very long) day hiring a taxi. The Yumen Gate seemed to be in the middle of nowhere; it's all just desert out there, and very, very few people - I was there in the middle of summer.

I'm not sure how you could get to the village, as there's very infrequent public transport, or you'd have to hire a taxi to take you out there, but you'd have to pay a return as there's likely to be no-one out there to take back. Then you'd have the same problem getting back. Few tourists make it out there, and I would doubt that the village is anything other than a jumble of houses - Dunhuang isn't much itself

I'm usually one for doing this sort of thing, and like your idea, but at best I think it will be extremely difficult to arrange logistically. You might want to think about watching the sun rise and set over the dunes at Mingshashan instead?

Someone else may, of course, have better advice.

Have a great trip, LC

Feb 26, 2010 04:09

CROSIS
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Join Date: Sep 5, 2007
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Thanks for the great advice. I had thought I would need to take a driver one day and get him to return a couple of days later, but sounds if I just do as you suggest.

If it wasnt for the problem getting a licence I would love to buy a motorbike and head out into the desert on that. I like the idea of using this for 8-10 days and then finding someone local who could benefit from having it and giving it to them.

I was told that even though the Jade Gate is 9okm from Dunhuang, it was still quite a popular spot. I was hoping to visit this and then get out to some really remote wall spots. Having been there do you have any suggestions of places where tour buses dont go?

thank you

Mar 9, 2010 06:57

LEMONCACTUS
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Join Date: Dec 8, 2005
Status: Offline

Hi Crosis,

This thread got buried pretty quickly - you can always pm me if you have any questions and I'll try and help.

When I was there, there were probably about 8 people at the Yumen Gate - not exactly heaving :) Maybe I was lucky with the timing?

Anyway, there was nobody at the crumbling ruins of the wall, further on. I don't remember off hand what it was called and I'm thinking the taxi driver kind of tagged it onto my trip, as I can't see it on my itinerary.

LC

Mar 17, 2010 12:35	#4
ELLYSE Points: Join Date: Oct 30, 2005 Status: Offline	"Wall"? AFAIK I only saw the "gate" there, no "wall". There's a crumbling part of the Han dynasty Great Wall that we went to though. Would recommend that you check out my VirtualTourist Dunhuang travel page: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/1d57/f8fb3/ If you've any more queries, email me at yahoo.com\|ellyse99 and put "TravelChinaGuide" and your own username (eg Crosis) in the subject line.

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