Cycling The Silk Road In China – The markets of Dunhuang

Taking a day off from being a traveler, and spending almost a whole day in a comfortable bed in a five-star hotel, is a true luxury.

The Oasis city of Dunhuang, is usually so very hot during the day….
People do not walk the streets during mid day, or they walk with umbrellas, to shade off the piercing sun.

Today after breakfast, I took off my clothes, put on a soft bathrobe, got back into the high quality sheets in the king size bed, and took a long nap.
With the cool air-condition, and the pleasing modern decor of the room, I was resting in heaven….. My stimulated mind so filled with images of all the art and sites we seen…. Was running colorful pictures in my mind’s eye, until I drifted into sleep.

In the late afternoon, we walked the streets of Dunuang, exploring the local markets.

I usually love to make healing tea for us to drink, while we travel.

All hotel rooms in China, offer a tea making facility with a kettle and tea cups
So we bought rose petals, goji berries, yellow flowers and jasmine green tea, to mix together with a piece of dried date and rock sugar, into a healing tea.

Dunhuang has a Night market which is called Shazhou Market.

It is a busy and bustling market, with stalls selling dry fruit, teas, snacks, food, locally made shiny custom jewelry and craft.

There are abundant places to sit and enjoy a cold beer and many places selling hot pot food or BBQ, which are spicy and aromatic meats and kabobs served with a large sesame round bread (we tasted this version without meat, but with only skewered vegetable and the same hot sesame bread.)

We ate a Korean dinner of sizzling stone pot filled with rice and vegetables and tasted a special tea, called San-pao-tai, which is a famous sweet and sour cold tea, made from spring green tea, longan (a dried fruit similar to lichee), dates, apricots, preserved fruits, Goji Berries (also called wolfberry,) walnut, sesame, and dried raisins.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Dunhuang and fly to Urumqi in Xinjiang Province.