Letter from Dunhuang: Encounter with a one-man army

Dunhuang may be famous the world over for the Mogao grottoes, but it is more than just that. Unfortunately (for me and perhaps fortunately for others), it has all the trappings of a modern town, with neon-lit signboards and glass-window showrooms.

Open at night is a flea market and a food pavilion that has eateries and kiosks serving delights from across the vast expanse that is China. But then we are talking about modern life that this northern part of Gansu Province is not known for.

So we get back to nature and history.

Dunhuang has a lot more than just the Mogao

grottoes to offer to the initiated as well as the lay tourist: Mingsha Mountain (Echoing Sand Mountain), Crescent Lake, White Horse Pagoda, Western Thousand-Buddha Caves, the Yumen Pass and the Yangguan Pass.

It's the last named that caught me by surprise, and not least because of a man named Ji Yongyuan (about whom my colleague, Hu Yinan, wrote in this column on September 27, 2007).

Yangguan is where the western-most tip of the Great Wall once extended. Only a small mound remains of the once mighty structure - a mute witness to the changing times and climate. It is primarily this structure (and much more besides) that Ji is trying to save from extinction.

But before I visited Ji's museum and had the good fortune to see the remnants of the Great Wall, I took a trip to the town. That's when the glare and blare of modern life hit me like thunder.

I expected Dunhuang to be a sleepy town, far removed from the frills of vanity. I was wrong, though not totally frustrated. The reason: I found in the night market things that I could only have dreamed about. I picked up these gems - old posters, stamps and badges - from vendors for (what I consider) a song. And they are a treasure.

The Gobi Desert, the camels (the live as well as the toy and showpiece varieties), the eateries, the open-air pubs and everything else about Dunhuang, along with its history, make it a mixed-media wonder.

Above all the wonders, including the Mogao grottoes, is the Great Wall - for me, that is. Hundreds, rather thousands of people took hundreds of years to leave the magical caves with Buddhist deities and the Buddha over 45,000 sq m for us to marvel at.

Thousands, rather tens or hundreds of thousands of people took hundreds of years to build the architectural spectacle that we call the Great Wall.

But today it's a one-man army in the form of Ji Yongyuan, who is trying to save it from the vagaries of nature. We hope he succeeds and keeps the flag of history flying.

(China Daily 10/10/2007 page6)