Dunhuang Travel Guide: Mogao Caves Booking, Crescent Moon Spring and Getting There

Plan two full days in Dunhuang (敦煌, Dūnhuáng) at the very least, and three if you want the desert passes in the west without rushing. Before you book anything else, book your Mogao Caves ticket: it is sold only online, up to 30 days ahead, and in busy months it is the thing most likely to sell out. Getting there is easier than many older guides say. A few direct D trains (China's fast "bullet" trains) run right into Dunhuang Station from Lanzhou and Xi'an each day, overnight sleeper trains run on the same routes, and the airport has a handful of flights that change with the seasons.

This guide walks you through the Mogao booking step by step for a passport holder, then covers the Mingsha sand dunes and Crescent Moon Spring, the Yumen and Yangguan passes and the Yadan landforms out west, where to stay, and how Dunhuang fits into a Silk Road trip.

Dunhuang in short: how many days, which season, what to book first

How many days

Two days covers the essentials: the Mogao Caves on one morning, the dunes at the end of that day or the next, and a quiet half day at the museum or the night market. Three days lets you add a full day out west to Yumen Pass, Yangguan and the Yadan landforms, and leaves a spare morning in case bad weather closes the caves. If you are short on time, the caves and the dunes are the two things to keep.

Which season

Dunhuang is a desert town. The coldest month, January, averages -8.1°C, the hottest, July, averages 25.8°C, and the whole year brings only about 44 mm of rain, most of it in summer, June to August. In practice this means hot, bright summer days, cold but clear winters, and very dry air all year.

The Mogao Caves have two seasons, and they shape the whole trip:

• Peak season, 1 April to 30 November. The caves open 08:00–18:00 and stop checking tickets at 16:10. The standard ticket costs 238 yuan. Summer, the early-October national holiday and other Chinese holidays are when tickets are hardest to get, so book the moment your dates are fixed.
• Off-season, 1 December to 31 March. The caves open 09:00–17:00 and stop checking tickets at 15:10. The standard ticket drops to 140 yuan, and there is no cheaper "emergency" ticket in winter.

This winter (1 December 2026 to 31 March 2027), Dunhuang runs a winter-spring discount scheme: Mogao charges off-season prices, and the Mingsha dunes, the Yangguan–Yumen Pass area, the Yadan Geopark and the Xuanquanzhi ruins are half price. The city has also announced combined tickets, cheaper sightseeing buses and a 188-yuan single-person package for the same period. Check what the package includes when you buy it. Winter is cold, but the sites are quiet and the caves are easier to book. November sits in between: Mogao is still on peak-season prices and hours, while the crowds have mostly gone.

How the area is laid out

Dunhuang is a small, flat city, and the sights spread out around it:

• Mogao Caves are about 25 km southeast of the city, but you never drive straight there. You start at the Mogao Digital Exhibition Center, about 9 km from town, and a shuttle bus takes you on to the caves.
• Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring are about 5 km south of the city, close enough for a short taxi ride.
• The west: Yangguan is about 70 km southwest of the city, the Yadan Geopark about 180 km away, and Yumen Pass about 102 km from the Mogao visitor centre. These need a full day and a car or a bus tour.

Getting to Dunhuang: trains, Liuyuan South, flights and entry

The train times and fares below are from one sample travel day, 29 October 2026, as shown on 12306, China's official railway booking system. Timetables change, so check your own date before you plan around a specific train.

Direct trains into Dunhuang Station

Dunhuang Station (敦煌站) is at the end of a branch line, so only a few trains a day run all the way in. That is the main thing to know. Older guides say no fast trains reach Dunhuang at all; that is no longer true, but there are only a few, and they fill up.

• From Lanzhou: two daytime D trains leave Lanzhou West, D2749 at 11:58 (arriving 19:26) and D2737 at 13:47 (arriving 21:20), plus two overnight trains, Z6201 and Z259. Second class on the D trains was 324 yuan, and a hard sleeper on the Z6201 night train 244.5 yuan.
• From Xi'an: just one direct D train a day, D2737 from Xi'an North at 10:24, arriving 21:20 after almost 11 hours. Second class was 549 yuan. The overnight Z259 leaves Xi'an at 12:25 and arrives the next morning at 09:10.
• From Jiayuguan: D2749 and D2737 pass Jiayuguan South at 16:57 and 18:23 and take about two and a half to three hours, at 109 yuan in second class.
• From Zhangye: the same two D trains, about four to four and a half hours from Zhangye West.
• Leaving Dunhuang: the direct D trains leave in the morning, D2759 at 07:30 and D2739 at 08:40, heading towards Jiayuguan, Zhangye and Lanzhou. D2739 continues all the way to Xi'an North, arriving at 19:13. The overnight Z6203 leaves at 20:30 and reaches Lanzhou West at 07:16.

The overnight trains are slower, but they save you a hotel night and a day of sitting on a train. If the daytime D trains are sold out on your date, a sleeper is often the better fallback than going through Liuyuan South.

Liuyuan South: the fallback station

Liuyuan South (柳园南站, Liǔyuán Nán) is on the main line through the Gansu corridor and gets many more trains than Dunhuang Station, but it is far from the city. On the sample day, 12 trains ran from Jiayuguan South to Liuyuan South, but only two of them were D trains; the rest were slower Z trains, mostly at night. From Lanzhou West, the D trains to Liuyuan South were D575 at 10:12 and D2717 at 11:46.

Don't count on finding a shuttle bus from Liuyuan South into Dunhuang. If you end up at Liuyuan South, ask your Dunhuang hotel to arrange a car to meet you, and agree the price and pickup time before you travel. When you book, look closely at the station name: a ticket to "Liuyuan South" is not a ticket to "Dunhuang".

Booking train tickets

The official ways to book are the 12306 website, the 12306 app and the 12306 mini program inside Alipay, and the 12306 English website accepts foreign passports. Tickets go on sale 15 days ahead, counting the day of travel. With a passport you use the staffed gate at the station, because the automatic gates cannot read passports. If you would rather book in English with a foreign card and app support, Trip.com sells the same tickets. Our guide to booking China train tickets with a passport goes through both step by step, and the high-speed train guide explains seats and stations. For every leg of the route from Xi'an, with train counts and fares side by side, see the Silk Road route from Xi'an to Dunhuang.

Flying in

Dunhuang Mogao International Airport (敦煌莫高国际机场) has a small number of domestic routes, and many run only in certain seasons. For example, a Guangzhou–Dunhuang route on Hainan Airlines started on 15 March 2026, four days a week, and a Qingdao route returned for the summer from 10 July 2026. Winter schedules are thinner, so check a flight search for your exact dates before you plan around a flight. To get into town, take a taxi or arrange a hotel pickup; your hotel can tell you the usual fare.

Entering China

You cannot fly into Dunhuang from abroad, so you enter China somewhere else first, usually Beijing, Shanghai or Xi'an, and continue by train or domestic flight. Gansu, the province Dunhuang is in, has no entry port on the 240-hour visa-free transit list and is not one of the areas you may travel to under that scheme, so the transit rules alone will not get you here. Check instead whether your passport qualifies for China's 30-day visa-free entry, which covers tourism for citizens of 50 countries. For most of those countries the scheme is currently set to run until 31 December 2026, so if you travel in 2027, confirm on the National Immigration Administration website whether it has been extended. Otherwise you need a tourist visa. Our guides to 30-day visa-free entry and 240-hour visa-free transit explain who qualifies.

Mogao Caves: how to book, step by step

The Mogao Caves (莫高窟, Mògāo Kū) are hundreds of Buddhist cave temples cut into a cliff, painted with murals and filled with clay statues made over about a thousand years. They are the reason most people come to Dunhuang. To protect the paint, the caves work on real-name, timed tickets with a daily limit: 6,000 standard visits a day, each with films plus 8 caves. Here is everything a passport holder needs to know.

How a visit works

You do not go straight to the cliff. You arrive at the Mogao Digital Exhibition Center (莫高窟数字展示中心), watch two films there, then ride a shuttle bus to the caves, where staff split visitors into groups and a guide takes each group through the caves; afterwards the shuttle brings you back. There is no ticket office and no car park at the caves themselves, so you cannot drive there directly. You also do not choose your caves: 62 regular caves are open to the public, and each group is shown 8 of them. Plan on most of a morning or an afternoon for the whole visit, including the films and the shuttle rides.

Step 1: choose your ticket

Travellers often call the two main tickets the "A ticket" and the "B ticket". The official names are the standard ticket and the emergency ticket.

• Standard ticket (常规票), the "A ticket". Two films plus a guided visit to 8 caves, 238 yuan in peak season and 140 yuan in the off-season, with the shuttle bus included. The guiding is in Chinese.
• Foreign-language guided ticket (外宾票). The same visit with a foreign-language guide, 258 yuan in peak season and 160 yuan in the off-season — the standard price plus a 20-yuan guiding fee. This is the one to book if you want to understand what you are looking at. The booking page does not list the languages or session times in advance, so check which languages and times are offered when you choose your slot.
• Emergency ticket (应急票), the "B ticket". Four caves, no films, 100 yuan, and sold only in peak season. It exists for very busy days, when the Dunhuang Academy switches on the emergency mode. There is no published rule for when that happens, so treat it as a backup, not a plan.
• Caves-only and film-only tickets also appear on the price list, but most visitors should ignore them.

Discounts are for Chinese citizens only. The cheaper "concession" and "special concession" tickets are for eligible Chinese citizens, such as Chinese students and seniors; visitors on an ordinary foreign passport pay the full price or buy the foreign-language guided ticket. Children under 4 go free and need no booking.

In winter, the standard ticket still includes the films and a guided cave visit. Official sources disagree on how many caves you see in the off-season, 8 or 10, so check the number on the booking page for your date.

The table below lists every ticket type with peak and off-season prices and opening hours.

Step 2: book on WeChat

Mogao tickets are sold only through official online channels. As an individual traveller, you book through the "莫高窟参观预约网" (Mogao Caves Reservation) service account or mini program inside WeChat, China's main messaging app; if you hold a foreign passport, open the service account, tap the "预约购票" (Book Tickets) menu and choose "Ticket Booking". The website www.mgk.org.cn is only for registered travel agencies, and the Dunhuang Academy has not authorised any third party to resell tickets. If you don't use WeChat yet, set it up at home before you go; our WeChat setup guide covers sign-up and verification.

The booking rules that matter:

• When: booking is open every day from 07:00 to 22:00, for visits up to 30 days ahead. Between 22:00 and 07:00 you cannot book or cancel. There is no published time for when new days are released, so in summer start checking 30 days before your visit.
• How many: one account can make one purchase every 30 days, with up to 5 tickets in that purchase. If you are travelling as a group, one person should book for everyone in one go.
• Names: each ticket is in a real name, and the passport you enter must be the one you bring.
• Changes and refunds: the ticket is valid only for the booked date; you can change the date and time slot once, free, before your visit, but once the ticket has been issued or checked it can't be changed or refunded.
• Payment: you pay inside WeChat. Link a foreign card to WeChat Pay before you try to book, and the payment screen will show whether your card goes through.

Step 3: on the day

1. Get to the Digital Exhibition Center at least 30 minutes before your time slot. With a passport, go early: you have more to do than Chinese visitors. The address is 8899 Yangguan East Road (阳关东路8899号). A taxi from town is easiest; city bus 12 also goes there from across the road from the Silk Road Yiyuan Hotel (丝路怡苑大酒店).
2. Collect your ticket at the counter. Passport holders must go to the ticket window, show the passport and get a printed ticket slip; you then pass the gate with that paper slip and your passport. The tap-your-ID gates are only for Chinese ID cards.
3. Leave big bags behind. Suitcases, bags of 20 inches or larger, pets and drones are not allowed at the caves, there is a security check, and the Digital Exhibition Center stores luggage for free.
4. Watch the two films, then take the shuttle to the caves and stay with your group.
5. No photos inside the caves. Photography and filming inside the caves are banned, as are touching the walls and livestreaming. You can take pictures of the cliff from outside. The caves are dim and cool, so bring a light jacket even in summer.

If you are keen to see more, 14 "special caves" open in limited numbers and are booked separately at the cave site after your standard visit, with your ID. Ask about the price and availability at the special-cave desk.

Bad weather

Heavy rain or strong sandstorms close the caves, and tickets not yet used are refunded in full. Closures are announced on the Dunhuang Academy website, on the booking service account and by text message to the phone number on your order. Summer rain is rare but does happen, so book Mogao for your first full day and keep a spare day behind it. Treat that day as a buffer rather than a guaranteed second chance: one account can buy only once every 30 days, so booking again may need another person's WeChat account; ask at the Digital Exhibition Center ticket counter what they can offer.

The table below collects the booking and visit rules in one place.

If Mogao is sold out

First, keep checking the booking page every day: in peak season, also watch for emergency tickets on very busy days. If you still can't get in, these are the best alternatives. Yulin Caves and the Western Thousand Buddha Caves are run by the Dunhuang Academy, the same institute that runs Mogao.

Yulin Caves (榆林窟, Yúlín Kū). These are the best substitute, with murals of very high quality, but they are in Guazhou County, about 153 km from the Mogao visitor centre, so it is a long day trip by car. The ticket for foreign visitors is 55 yuan and includes a 15-yuan foreign-language guiding fee. Yulin's seasons differ from Mogao's: from 1 November to 30 April it opens 09:30–17:00 and sells tickets until 16:00, and from 1 May to 31 October it opens 09:00–17:30. Tickets are sold through the official ticketing account on WeChat, and the "representative caves" need a separate ticket with no discounts. Photos inside the caves are banned here too. Details are on the Dunhuang Academy's Yulin Caves page.

Western Thousand Buddha Caves (西千佛洞, Xī Qiānfó Dòng). A small cave site about 42 km from the Mogao visitor centre, on the way to Yangguan, open all year; the full ticket is 30 yuan. It is much smaller than Mogao, but it is easy to add to a day out west.

Dunhuang Museum (敦煌市博物馆). Free, with real-name booking, and closed on Mondays. You can book up to 7 days ahead through the "敦煌市博物馆" WeChat account or at the visitor service desk. It gives a good overview of Dunhuang's Silk Road history and is worth an hour or two even if you do get into Mogao.

Mingsha Mountain and Crescent Moon Spring

Mingsha Mountain (鸣沙山, Míngshā Shān, "Singing Sand Mountain") is a range of tall sand dunes on the southern edge of town, and Crescent Moon Spring (月牙泉, Yuèyá Quán) is a small curved pond tucked between them. They share one scenic area and one ticket. This is the classic Dunhuang picture: you climb a dune and look down on the spring and its pavilion, ringed by sand.

Tickets and booking

The peak-season ticket is 110 yuan at full price, under the scenic area's notice that took effect on 1 April 2024; a 55-yuan half-price ticket exists for eligible concession groups. With a foreign passport, buy the full-price ticket. A ticket is valid for three days, and within those three days you can go in as many times as you like with the same ID, without booking again. That means you can go once in the afternoon for the light and come back for sunrise. From 1 December 2026 to 31 March 2027 the ticket is half price for everyone under the winter-spring scheme. For a November visit, check the current price when you book.

Tickets are real-name and sold online: through the official "鸣沙山月牙泉" WeChat account, or on travel platforms such as Trip.com, Meituan and Tongcheng, and you show the same ID at the gate. When the scenic area tested timed booking in 2024, it asked visitors to book 1–5 days ahead. With a passport, book on a travel platform such as Trip.com, where you can book in English; check that your passport is accepted as the ID type before you pay, and bring it to the gate. There are three gates, Middle, East and West, and on busy days the scenic area suggests the East or West gate.

Opening hours follow sunrise and sunset and change through the year. For example, they were 07:00–19:00 from 10 March 2025, and ticket checks ran 05:00–20:30 in July 2024. Check the current hours on the scenic area's WeChat account before you go, especially in winter.

The table below sums up prices and booking for Mingsha and the other sights in this guide, including the winter discount.

What you do there

• Camel rides. Long strings of camels walk visitors out across the dunes. It's touristy but fun, and the view from the top of the ride is good.
• Climbing the dunes. Rope or wooden ladders go up the steepest dune faces. Climbing in loose sand is harder than it looks, so take it slowly.
• Sand sliding. You ride a sled down a dune slope.
• Shoe covers. Bright orange or red cloth covers that keep sand out of your shoes, rented near the entrance. They are worth it unless you are wearing boots you don't mind filling with sand.
• The spring itself. A short walk on flat paths, with a pavilion and temple buildings beside the water. You don't need to climb anything to see it.

Camel rides, sand sliding, ladders and other extras are paid separately inside the scenic area, so ask the price before you get on.

When to go: late afternoon and sunset

Go in the late afternoon and stay for sunset. The sand cools down, the low light brings out the shapes of the dunes, and the climb is far more pleasant than at midday. In summer the sand gets very hot by noon, so avoid the middle of the day. Sunrise is the other good time, and the three-day ticket makes it easy to come back for it. In winter, dress warmly for the evening: the temperature falls fast once the sun goes down.

Yumen Pass, Yangguan and the Yadan landforms

West of Dunhuang lie the remains of the Han dynasty frontier: Yumen Pass (玉门关, Yùmén Guān, the "Jade Gate"), Yangguan (阳关, Yángguān, the "Sun Pass") and sections of ancient wall built from reeds and gravel. Further out are the Yadan landforms (雅丹, Yǎdān), long rows of wind-carved clay ridges in open desert, sometimes called the "Devil City". The ruins themselves are modest, a mud-brick fort and a beacon tower, so go for the sense of distance and the empty desert rather than for big monuments.

Distances and getting there

Yangguan is about 70 km southwest of the city, and Yumen Pass about 102 km from the Mogao visitor centre. The Yadan Geopark is about 180 km northwest of the city, beyond Yumen Pass. No public bus reaches Yadan, and Yangguan and Yumen Pass have one daily sightseeing bus, so you have three options:

• The sightseeing bus to Yangguan and Yumen Pass. A special bus service started in July 2025: it leaves Dunhuang Bus Station at 08:30, stops at Yangguan for about two hours, moves on to Yumen Pass at 11:20, and leaves Yumen Pass for town at 14:00. The return fare is 120 yuan per person, entry tickets not included, and you can buy it at the bus station window or in the 12306 mini program. Check at the bus station that it is running on your date, especially in winter. It does not go to Yadan.
• A private car with a driver, booked through your hotel, for all three sites in one long day. This is the most flexible option and the only easy way to reach Yadan.
• A group day tour, sold by hostels and hotel tour desks, which usually covers the same loop.

Tickets and visiting

Each site sells its own entry ticket, so check the prices when you book your car or tour; from 1 December 2026 to 31 March 2027 all three are half price.

• Yumen Pass changes its hours with sunrise and sunset. Its last published hours were 07:00–18:30, with the last sightseeing bus inside the site leaving at 18:30; confirm the hours for your date, as winter days are shorter.
• Yadan works like a bus tour: you buy an entry ticket plus a ticket for the park's own buses, which leave at fixed times. The south route takes about 2.5 hours with 12 stops, and the sunset bus times are posted on the park's WeChat account.
• Yangguan has a museum at the site, and the sightseeing bus gives it the longest stop of the day.

One day in the west

With a car, the usual loop is Yangguan in the morning, Yumen Pass and the Han wall around midday, and Yadan in the afternoon, ideally on one of the late park buses for the low evening light, then the long drive back after dark. It is a full day with a lot of driving. Bring water, snacks, sunscreen and a warm layer, because services are few and the desert gets cold in the evening. If you only want one thing out west, choose Yadan for the landscape, or Yumen Pass and Yangguan for the history; the sightseeing bus covers the second option cheaply.

Where to stay: city centre or near the dunes

Most visitors are happiest in the city centre, near the Shazhou Night Market (沙州夜市) and the main streets. You have the most restaurants, the shortest taxi rides to the Mogao Digital Exhibition Center, and hotels used to foreign guests. Many hostels and mid-range hotels here can also arrange cars for the west and a driver for Liuyuan South.

Near the dunes, on the road out to Mingsha Mountain, you'll find guesthouses, boutique hotels and some desert camps. These let you walk or take a short ride to the scenic area for sunrise and sunset. The trade-off: fewer places to eat in the evening, longer rides to Mogao, and some places close or run reduced service in winter. A good mix is staying in town and spending the late afternoons at the dunes.

Whichever you choose, make sure the place can register a foreign passport; small guesthouses sometimes can't. Our guide to booking hotels and registration rules explains why this matters. You can compare hotels in both areas on Booking.com.

Two days or three: sample plans

Day 1: Mogao and the dunes. Take a morning Mogao slot, which gives you time to collect your ticket at the counter. Have lunch in town, rest through the heat of the afternoon, then go to Mingsha Mountain around two hours before sunset and stay until dark. Eat at the Shazhou Night Market.

Day 2: the west. Take the 08:30 sightseeing bus to Yangguan and Yumen Pass, or hire a car for Yangguan, Yumen Pass and Yadan with Yadan last for the evening light. If you'd rather keep it short, visit the Dunhuang Museum in the morning instead (it is closed on Mondays) and go back to the dunes for sunrise the next day on your three-day ticket.

Day 3 (optional): spare time. Use it for the museum, the Western Thousand Buddha Caves, a sunrise at the dunes, or as a buffer in case weather closes the caves and you need to change your Mogao date. If Mogao was sold out, this is the day for Yulin Caves.

Plan your nights around the trains. The direct D trains arrive in the evening and leave in the morning, so on those trains two full days means three nights, and three full days means four. The overnight trains give you fuller end days: Z259 arrives at 09:10 in the morning, and Z6203 leaves at 20:30 in the evening, so you can arrive on one and leave on the other with two full days and only two hotel nights in between.

Dry air, sand and big temperature swings

Dunhuang gets about 44 mm of rain a year, so the air is very dry and the sun is strong even in cool months. Bring sunscreen, sunglasses, lip balm and a hat, and drink more water than you think you need. A scarf or buff helps on windy days when sand blows. Days can be warm and nights cold, especially in spring and autumn, so pack layers. Summer afternoons are hot and the sand at the dunes can burn, so do outdoor sights early or late. In winter, January averages -8.1°C, and the desert sites feel colder in the wind, so bring a proper coat, gloves and a hat. See our weather by region guide for the rest of your route.

What to eat

Dunhuang food is hearty northwestern cooking, built on wheat noodles and lamb. The local signature is donkey meat with yellow noodles (驴肉黄面, lǘròu huángmiàn): firm yellow wheat noodles with sliced, braised donkey meat. Lamb and flatbread stew (胡羊焖饼, húyáng mènbǐng) is a big shared dish of lamb cooked down with strips of flatbread, good for two or more people. Apricot drink (杏皮水, xìngpí shuǐ) is a sweet-sour cold drink made from dried apricots, and you'll see it everywhere in summer. For an easy evening, the Shazhou Night Market in the centre has lamb skewers, noodles, dried fruit and the apricot drink in one place; it is aimed at tourists, but it is the simplest way to try several dishes at once. Many restaurants here are halal (清真, qīngzhēn); our halal food guide explains the signs.

Connecting to the rest of the Silk Road

Dunhuang is usually the western end of a Silk Road trip through the Gansu corridor. Our Silk Road route from Xi'an to Dunhuang lays out the whole trip leg by leg, with 7-day and 10-day plans. The stops on the way:

• Jiayuguan, about two and a half to three hours east by D train, has the fort at the western end of the Ming dynasty Great Wall. The fort ticket is 110 yuan and includes the Overhanging Great Wall and the First Beacon Tower; a night tour of the fort is 128 yuan; check whether night tours run in winter. The last published winter hours, from a 2023 notice, were 09:00–17:30, so check the hours for your date. City buses 10 and 12 have run from Jiayuguan South station to the fort; confirm the route locally, or take a taxi. It makes a good half-day stop between Zhangye and Dunhuang.
• Zhangye, home of the striped Rainbow Mountains, is about four hours by the direct D train. See our Zhangye Rainbow Mountains guide.
• Lanzhou, the capital of Gansu and the main rail hub, is about seven and a half hours by D train or one night on a sleeper. The Lanzhou guide covers the Gansu Provincial Museum and the Yellow River.
• Xi'an, the traditional starting point, is one long day on the single direct D train, so check 12306 for your date. Our Xi'an travel guide covers the start of the route.
• Xining and Qinghai Lake make a good side trip from Lanzhou or Zhangye; see the Xining and Qinghai Lake guide.

Going further west into Xinjiang, towards Turpan and Ürümqi, means taking a train on the main line through Liuyuan South; check the options on 12306 for your date.

Money and internet

Visitors in China can pay by mobile payment, bank card, cash or digital yuan, but in Dunhuang almost everything, from taxis to night-market stalls, runs on Alipay and WeChat Pay. WeChat Pay accepts foreign cards including Visa, Mastercard, American Express and JCB, and you need WeChat anyway for the Mogao booking. Set it up before you arrive; our guides to WeChat Pay with foreign cards and Alipay with foreign cards walk you through it. Carry some cash for drivers and small guesthouses; Chinese yuan cash is legal tender and businesses may not refuse it.

Mobile data is good in town and patchy out in the desert, so download offline maps and your booking confirmations before a day out west. An eSIM or local SIM is the simplest way to stay connected; our SIM card and eSIM guide compares the options.

FAQ

If something goes wrong

Call 110 for the police and 120 for an ambulance; both are free and need no area code. If you get lost or unwell out in the desert, call your driver or hotel as well, since they know the roads. Our emergency numbers guide explains what to say and how to reach your embassy.

Last updated: October 2026