Getting There -- The airport is 13km (8 miles) east of Dunhuang, just past the turnoff to the Mogao caves. Public buses (¥5/65¢/30p) connect with flights, or you can try your luck bargaining with taxi drivers without meters, who should charge no more than ¥30 ($3.90/£1.95) to the center of town. The most useful office of CAAC (8am-8pm) is by the Dunhuang Binguan at 12 Yangguan Dong Lu (tel. 0937/882-2389). They will deliver tickets to your hotel, so there is no need to book tickets through hotel travel agencies, who will charge up to ¥70 ($9.10/£4.55) for making a local call. Daily flights connect with Lanzhou (¥1,160/$151/£75), Urumqi (¥840/$109/£55), Xi'an (¥1,810/$235/£118), and Beijing (¥2,010/$261/£131). There are fewer flights in winter.
Dunhuang's tiny new railway station is 6 miles out of town (¥15/$1.95/£1 by taxi or ¥3/40¢/20p by local bus), and has services to Turpan and Urumqi (T216 at 8:16pm), Jiayu Guan (7528 at 4:10pm), Lanzhou (858 at 7:25pm), and even Xi'an (K592 at 9:30am). Coming to or from Beijing or Shanghai you'll still have to come via the old railhead 130km (81 miles; 2-3 hr.) away at Liuyuan. From Liuyuan station, you will have no trouble finding minibus drivers, who ask ¥30 ($3.90/£1.95) for the ¥15 ($1.95/£1) trip to Dunhuang. Taxis will make the trip in either direction for ¥100 to ¥120 ($13-$16/£6.50-£7.80) or ¥30 ($3.90/£1.95) per person if you share. If you are the last tourist around after a train pulls away, you can bargain hard as the station suffers from a glut of drivers. Buses for Liuyuan railway station leave Dunhuang's long-distance bus station at 7:30am, 9:30am, 11am, noon, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm, and 7:30pm (¥20/$2.60/£1.30]. You can buy train tickets at either rail station, from the ticket office (8am-noon and 2-4pm) next to the bank on Yangguan Zhong Lu, through your hotel or a travel agent.
The bus station is on Ming Shan Lu (tel. 0937/882-2174), diagonally opposite the Feitian Binguan. Daily buses connect with Jiayu Guan (383km/237 miles; 6 hr.) hourly from 8am, but it's worth taking the quicker and more comfortable fast services at 8:30am and 2:30pm (5 hr.; ¥66/$8.60/£4.30); with Lanzhou at 10:30am and 7:30pm (1,148km; 16 hr.; sleeper bus; ¥227/$30/£15 lower berth, ¥214/$28/£14 upper berth); with Golmud at 9am (524km/325 miles; 10 hr.; ¥99/$13/£6.40 lower berth, ¥89/$12/£5.75 upper berth); and with Xining at 11am (1,067km/662 miles; 19 hr.; ¥182/$24/£12).
Getting Around -- Taxis fill Dunhuang's narrow streets; most are gypsy cabs. The rate should be ¥5 (65¢/30p) for a short ride; ¥10 ($1.30/65p) for a longer one. Get around on foot, or hire a bike for ¥1 (15¢/5p) per hour. There are also a few bus routes, of which no. 3 running to the Singing Sand Mountains, the unnumbered airport (¥5/65¢/35p), and train station (¥3/40¢/20p) routes are the most useful. There is also a new bus service (again unnumbered) that runs from the Dunhuang Fandian near Charley Johng's cafe to the Mogao Caves for ¥8/$1.05/50p.
Tours -- CITS is inside the compound of the Dunhuang Guoji Dajiudian at Ming Shan Lu 32 (tel. 0937/882-2474; fax 0937/882-2173; www.dhcits.com; open 8am-noon and 3-6pm), on the right as you enter.
