Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel
A 266-room fort-style hotel on the edge of the Gobi, near Crescent Lake.
- Neighbourhood
- South of Dunhuang, edge of the Gobi
- Status
- Open
Why we recommend it
The hotel’s argument is its sense of place. Its architecture takes the vocabulary of the old frontier, sloping walls in rammed earth and stone under upswept eaves, and applies it to a large complex set against the dunes rather than in the town. The effect is theatrical, and it gives a stay its setting before the first cave or the first camel.
It is a big property, used by several specialist tour operators for the region, one of which rates it the best hotel in the Dunhuang area. It is fair to describe it as comfortable and characterful rather than polished: rooms are rustic by design. Its particular asset is the roof, where breakfast and evening drinks are served on the terrace, with the sun rising and setting over the Mingsha dunes and ribbons of poplars in between.
Travellers who want a small, contemporary alternative should look at Jangala Dunhuang, the minimalist desert retreat in Qili Town.
Rooms & Suites
The 266 rooms are reached through courtyards and winding corridors. They are furnished to suit the setting: stone floors, large rugs, local textiles, Chinese antiques and replica furniture in Tang, Ming and Qing styles, with a faintly Central Asian feel, alongside the expected modern comforts.
Dining
There are two main restaurants. Deli Chamber serves Chinese food, principally Sichuan and Cantonese dishes; Delights Chamber offers modern Asian and international cooking. The Starry Lounge is the rooftop café and bar, used for breakfast in the morning and for drinks at sunset, and is a good place to try the local Mogao wine.
Design
The hotel is designed to resemble a fortress palace of the Han and Tang eras. Walls of exposed local stone and rammed earth slope inwards as they rise, roofs end in upswept eaves, and the plan is organised around traditional enclosed courtyards. Large roof terraces run across the top of the complex, so that the dunes behind are part of the composition.
Wellness & Spa
Facilities include a fitness centre, a billiard room, table tennis and a basketball court, and the hotel can arrange camel riding, trekking and sand sledging on the dunes.
Location
The hotel is on the southern outskirts of Dunhuang, in Gansu province, between the town and the dunes. The airport is about 20 minutes away by car and the Shazhou Night Market about ten. Crescent Lake, described in OKYTO’s experience page on climbing the singing dunes of Dunhuang to Crescent Lake, can be reached on foot. The caves are a half-hour drive: see Visiting the Mogao Caves, OKYTO’s guide to a thousand years of Buddhist painting, and, for the rest of the oasis, Dunhuang Beyond the Caves, on the singing dunes and the Han frontier.