How do you like your donkey?

Getting to Dunhuang from Shanghai was no easy feat. One could take the train (25 hours) or fly like we did leaving at 6 am, changing planes 3 times, and arriving at 7PM. I won't mention the cancelled flight, the incorrect passport number, and other issues that threatened to derail the whole trip, but we finally made it to this remote desert outpost.
The hotel is beautiful but weird. We tried to eat dinner here this evening and were surprised a large tourist hotel like this had no real restaurant. There was much confusion before several staff members ushered us into a small closet and gave us some glossy pictures of food. With Google Translate, we said "chicken". Soon a huge cauldron appeared full of onions, potatoes and the main ingredient--- chicken feet. Big greasy gnarly chicken feet.

We'll have to venture into town for dinner after this however we've also learned the local Dunhuang specialty is donkey meat with noodles cooked in donkey marrow broth.

Tomorrow we spend all day in the Gobi Desert and the following day we visit the Mogao Caves, the main reason for visiting this area.Read more