The procession of camels ambles over the sand dunes, with each creature supporting a person shielded from the sun and sporting vibrant orange shoe protectors to counteract the sand. Their journey comes to pause at the sight of the road whereupon a unique traffic light featuring a flashing red camel image signals a halt.
Around 2,000 of these double-humped mammals, with their thick fur and extra pair of eyelids akin to windshield wipers, inhabit Mingsha Mountain located close to Dunhuang, an erstwhile Silk Road watering hole on the frontier of China’s Gansu province’s Gobi Desert. Each beast has a unique number stitched onto the harness of its saddle, not dissimilar to a vehicle’s registration plate, informs a guide.
Mingsha Mountain, directly translating as the “melodic sand dunes” due to the tones of the sands in a gusty weather, is complemented by the nearby Crescent Moon Springs; a pristine lake. Holiday-makers ascend to the dune tops via a makeshift ladder comprising wooden planks sandwiched between two metal lines.
“The melodious sand of Mingsha Mountain is a common fact, but what is the reason behind it?” questions Wang Youxia, an employee at the local tourist development business.
“Scientifically, an explanation for the melodies produced by the sand can be given. However, the awe-inspiring forces of mother nature have given us this gift. It’s a feeling that everyone should experience in this natural setting.”
This year has seen Mingsha Mountain accommodating over four million sightseers thus far, but not even 20,000 of them have been international visitors. Indeed, even at Mogao Caves, a locale renowned globally for its Buddhist mural arts, overseas guests account for a minuscule fraction of the total visitors.
More than 700 caverns exist here, with the eldest among them chiseled into the bedrock over 1,600 years back, and a substantial 400 or so still retain their ancient murals. Each cave, kept dark to protect the invaluable artwork, allows a maximum of 25 visitors at one time, who are guided through the cavern using a handheld lamp to illuminate its significant attributes.
While the Mogao Caves host Buddha sculptures and aerial aspara depictions, one can also find murals of individuals in the fashion of the era when created at the lower part of the walls in numerous caverns. These individuals are typically those who financed the artist’s work and cave maintenance, and were often influential local patrons.
The Mogao Caves themselves serve a crucial role to Dunhuang’s local administration as the municipality’s most significant taxpayers. As one of the nation’s most unfortunate provinces, Gansu, and Dunhuang specifically, is privileged to reap the benefits of tourist income, roughly contributing to two-thirds of the city’s economic activities.
Zhu Yuming, the Community Party municipal committee’s deputy secretary in Dunhuang, identifies the economy’s realignment as one of the city’s pressing issues. Despite tourism’s contributions, it doesn’t generate substantial tax revenue. “Our citizens are relatively affluent in terms of potential, yet our administration is under-resourced. We have limited funds to invest in city infrastructure and such. Currently, we are striving to establish primary and secondary industries along with service sectors. However, it’s a difficult task,” he elaborates.
As a proficient English speaker, Zhu has visited Ireland this year, including Dublin and Sligo, twinned with Gansu, and is adamant about leveraging Dunhuang’s global bonds. US ambassador to China Nicholas Burns was recently in the city, and several other ambassadors and potential overseas investors have journeyed to Dunhuang.
“We have a twin town in Nepal, triple twin cities in Japan, a pair in Korea, one each in Belarus and Sweden,” Zhu mentions. “However, we still don’t have an economic alliance. We engage in people-related interactions and visitations, but meaningful cooperation is lacking. This does not indicate that we lack potential or areas that enable cooperation.”
Close to Dunhuang, the desert houses some of China’s most progressive projects in its transition towards green energy, containing the biggest wind farm group globally, with a significant portion of the city’s power deriving from renewable energy sources. Nevertheless, most new energy firms are not profitable enough yet to significantly contribute to the taxes that finance Dunhuang’s public amenities.
Zhu, with his associates, is dedicated to enhancing the revenue influx and strategising to tackle a side effect of China’s touch-free retail economy that’s been steering earnings away from the city. Various local enterprises utilise bank accounts in bigger cities like Beijing or Shanghai instead of in Dunhuang, which prevents the money from reaching the city when customers deploy payment software like WeChat or AliPay.
Zhu shared, “Our objective is to create a proprietary Dunhuang code, which our business folks can scan and thereby ensure that, at the very least, the money circulates through Dunhuang.”
He further added, “By observing the money movement and capitalising on these facts and data, we can greatly enhance our tourism.”