Dug into a desert cliff outside Dunhuang between the 4th and 14th centuries, the Mogao Caves hold roughly 45,000 square metres of Buddhist wall paintings and more than 2,000 painted sculptures — a thousand years of Silk Road art in one place. Cave 17, the famous Library Cave, held tens of thousands of manuscripts sealed for nine centuries.
Visits are guided-only and photography inside is banned, which sounds restrictive and is actually the best thing about it: a torch-lit walk through a handful of caves with a specialist guide. Book the A ticket with an English-language slot, and see the two films at the visitor centre first — they are the ticket’s secret weapon.