Walk to the Sandbank Market early in the morning and get ready to take a bus to the Mogao Caves. There is a shop in the sandbar market that is frying bubble oil cakes, freshly fried bubble oil cakes are golden in color, there is a bulging bubble in the center, the shell is crunchy to eat, and the inside is soft and sweet. The price of the bubble oil cake in the sandbar market is very fair, one only needs a piece of five, but it should not be eaten more, and if you eat more, it is slightly greasy, one is enough.
Bao'er oil cake is also a historical "sugar hammer", which has a history of more than 1,200 years in Dunhuang. According to records, Dunhuang Wen P.3231 volume Pingkang Township Official Zhai once recorded a snack called "Hammer Head", sugar hammer is today's Bubble Oil Cake, which was restored by Dunhuang Hotel in the 1980s according to folk traditional methods. It is also rumored that this snack evolved from the Tang Dynasty's "see the wind and pretty", its surface is puffed like a yarn, and there are dense pearl bubbles on the top, hence the name.
The weather in Dunhuang in September is really good, the sun is warm, the rhythm of the town is soothing, and the street market is peaceful. Near the Sandbank Market, take a green-skinned bus that can't find a stop sign and head to the Mogao Caves. The enthusiastic driver master also stuffed each person with a jujube from Dunhuang.
Like the Potala Palace in Lhasa, the Mogao Caves also adopt an online real-name reservation system. If you do not have to make a reservation in advance, you can only purchase an emergency ticket. General reservation tickets allow you to visit eight caves in the high season and twelve caves in the low season. The emergency ticket can only visit four caves and need to wait in line on the spot for admission.
The mogao caves are visited by watching a movie first and then going to the caves. After collecting the tickets, first watch the theme movie "Millennium Mogao" and the dome movie "Dream Buddha Palace" at the Digital Exhibition Center. The former tells the history of the Silk Road and the Mogao Grottoes, and the latter is an immersive visit to the Mogao Grottoes experience, and the whole person feels as if he is in the caves. The two films add up to an hour, are well-made, and are not too addictive to watch once.
After watching the movie, take a scenic bus to the physical caves of Mogao Caves. Mogao Caves Scenic Area has professional interpreters diverted to the designated caves to visit and explain, a group of ten people, each person issued a headset. Every time you come to Mogao Grottoes, you may see differently, and which cave you can see depends on fate.
Photography is not allowed in the cave, and the docent uses a special small flashlight to guide the viewing step by step and explain in real time. After each visit to a cave, the docent locks the door and takes everyone to the next cave. Eight caves were completed, about an hour and a half. Coming out of the eighth cave, it is still unfinished.
Originally, the Mood of the Mogao Grottoes was purely a cultural pilgrimage, and I was worried that the scene might not be understood. Unexpectedly, the docents were very professional, and in a short period of time, let us understand the allusions behind each cave, and make those stories that have been dusted by history come to life. The Mogao Grottoes are no longer just colorful flying murals and Buddha statues, everything is alive and three-dimensional.
Looking out from the dry Daquan River, opposite is the Wang Daoshi Pagoda. Walking across the stone bridge over the Daquan River, opposite the Mogao Caves is the Mogao Caves Exhibition Hall, where you can see four physical caves reproduced in a 1:1 scale up close. In the exhibition hall, I met the Dunhuang Research Institute to shoot a documentary, and recorded a promotional video on the scene by chance: I am in Dunhuang, waiting for you!
Coming out of the Mogao Caves, I ordered a bowl of mutton noodle soup. Mutton powder soup is said to be based on the Dunhuang folk traditional food "Qing Powder Lamb", the lamb is made of local lamb, I personally feel that there is no difference with the lamb steamed buns and the like that drunk in Xi'an.
The origin of alfalfa is not in the Central Plains, it was introduced to the Central Plains from the "Western Regions" during the Western Han Dynasty. Cold alfalfa is a very common dish on the Table in the Great Northwest, and I am not used to the sour cold mix taste, so the store made Daoqing stir-fried alfalfa. The store has probably never seen this kind of demand, and after repeated confirmation, it has been prepared. And on the back end came a plate of fried alfalfa, which was really not very tasty.
September 28, 2017
Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes
The third meal of 100 Meals on The Journey