Silk Road Itinerary: Xi'an, Zhangye and Dunhuang
The Hexi Corridor by high-speed rail in 10 to 14 days — Mogao, Jiayuguan, the Danxia landforms — and the visa rule that makes this route different from every other itinerary on this site.
Start with the constraint, because it decides whether you can take this trip at all.
Gansu is not in the 240-hour visa-free transit area. Neither are Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Tibet or Jilin. Zhangye, Jiayuguan and Dunhuang are all in Gansu. Xining is in Qinghai. Turpan and Urumqi are in Xinjiang.
If you were planning to do this on a transit permit, you cannot. This route needs a tourist visa. Everything below assumes you have one — see the L visa guide and confirm your own position with the entry checker before booking flights.
With that settled: the Hexi Corridor is the best long-distance rail journey in China, and it is the part of Chinese history that most visitors never reach.
What this route actually is
The Hexi Corridor is a 1,000 km strip of oasis towns between the Qilian mountains and the Gobi, the only practical land route between central China and Central Asia. Everything moved through it — silk, horses, Buddhism, armies. The Ming dynasty ended the Great Wall here because there was nothing worth walling beyond it.
The Lanzhou–Xinjiang high-speed line now runs the length of it, which is what makes this a ten-day trip instead of a three-week expedition. There is a direct service from Xi'an to Dunhuang of around eleven hours, calling at Lanzhou, Xining, Zhangye and Jiayuguan on the way. Broken into legs it is very manageable.
The ten-day route
| Days | Where | Getting there |
|---|---|---|
| 1–2 | Xi'an | Arrive XIY |
| 3–4 | Zhangye | ~6 h HSR from Xi'an |
| 5 | Jiayuguan | ~1.5 h HSR |
| 6–8 | Dunhuang | ~3–4 h HSR from Jiayuguan |
| 9–10 | Fly out of Dunhuang, or continue to Urumqi | — |
Rail times for reference: Xi'an to Zhangye roughly six hours; Lanzhou to Zhangye two to three; Xining to Zhangye one to two; Zhangye to Dunhuang four to five.
You can start at Lanzhou instead of Xi'an if you are flying in domestically and have already seen the Terracotta Army. That saves a day.
Days 1–2: Xi'an
The eastern terminus, and the reason the corridor exists.
Day 1: the city wall — 13.7 km, intact, bikeable, about two hours for a full circuit. Then the Muslim Quarter, which on this itinerary is not a food detour but the point: the Hui community there is a direct descendant of the trade this route carried.
Day 2: the Terracotta Army, 40 km east. Tickets release about seven days ahead on normal days and ten around public holidays; book online rather than queueing. Do the pits in reverse order — 2 and 3 first, 1 last.
If you have a third day, the Shaanxi History Museum is the best regional museum in China and its Tang and Han collections set up everything you are about to see further west. Advance booking required.
The Great Wild Goose Pagoda is where Xuanzang translated the sutras he brought back from India along this road. Worth an hour for the connection alone.
Days 3–4: Zhangye
Six hours west on the high-speed line, and the landscape changes completely — the Qilian range on one side, desert on the other.
Zhangye Danxia is the reason most people come: layered sandstone hills in bands of red, orange and yellow, produced by mineral deposits in tilted sedimentary rock. It is about 40 km west of the city.
Go in late afternoon. The colours are washed out in midday sun and come alive in the hour before sunset. The site has four viewing platforms connected by shuttle bus; platform 4 is generally the best for sunset and gets crowded accordingly.
Be aware that the more saturated photographs you have seen are usually enhanced. The real thing is impressive and it is not neon.
Zhangye's other site is the Giant Buddha Temple, which holds a 34-metre reclining Buddha from the Western Xia period — the largest indoor reclining Buddha in China, in a wooden hall that has survived since the eleventh century. It takes an hour and almost nobody goes.
Mati Si, the Horse Hoof Temple, is about 65 km south in the Qilian foothills — Buddhist grottoes carved into a cliff face with walkways and tunnels between them, at around 2,500 m. A half-day trip and a good one.
Day 5: Jiayuguan
Ninety minutes further west, and the western end of the Ming Great Wall.
Jiayuguan Fort is a walled garrison at the narrowest point of the corridor, restored and set against the Qilian mountains. For a millennium this was the edge of the empire — the phrase for being exiled was "going out through the pass."
Overhanging Great Wall is a short drive north, a steep rammed-earth section climbing a ridge. It looks nothing like the stone crenellations at Badaling, and that is the point: this is what the wall was for most of its length.
The First Beacon Tower sits on a cliff above the Taolai river gorge to the south.
One full day covers all three. Jiayuguan is not a place to linger otherwise.
Days 6–8: Dunhuang
The destination. Three nights, and you will use them.
Mogao Caves
Nearly 500 decorated caves cut into a cliff face over a thousand years, holding the largest surviving body of Buddhist wall painting in the world. If you are deciding between this and the other great cave complexes, see Yungang, Longmen or Mogao.
Access is controlled and this is the booking that matters. Visitor numbers are capped daily. Entry is by timed slot with an assigned guide, and the number of caves you see depends on which ticket type you hold — there have historically been a full-price ticket covering more caves and a reduced emergency ticket covering fewer, with the mix varying by season and demand. The arrangements have changed more than once. Book through the official Dunhuang Academy reservation channel well ahead, and check what the current ticket categories actually include rather than relying on a two-year-old blog post.
Photography inside the caves is not permitted. The caves are unlit except for the guide's torch, which is deliberate — the pigments are the thing being protected.
The visitor centre screens two films before you are bussed to the cliff. They are worth watching rather than skipping.
Dunhuang railway station is about 12 km from town and 16 km from the caves. City buses run roughly every 30 minutes from around 08:30 to 18:00 for about ¥8; a taxi is around ¥35 and 20 minutes.
Mingsha Shan and Crescent Lake
Singing Sand Mountain and the spring-fed crescent-shaped lake at its foot, 6 km south of town. Camels, sandboarding, and a dune climb for sunset.
It is touristed and it is also genuinely striking — a freshwater lake that has survived surrounded by moving dunes for two thousand years.
Go for sunset. Bring the shoe covers they sell at the gate; sand gets everywhere otherwise.
Yardang and the western passes
A long day trip west: the Yumen Pass and Yang Pass, the two gates through which the Silk Road left China, and the Yardang National Geopark, wind-carved rock formations in the desert about 180 km out.
This is a full day with a lot of driving and very little shade. Take it if the emptiness appeals; skip it if you would rather have a slow day in town.
Dunhuang night market is the evening. Donkey-meat noodles, apricot juice, and Gobi-style lamb skewers.
Days 9–10: onward
Fly out of Dunhuang. The airport has domestic connections to Lanzhou, Xi'an, Beijing and elsewhere. This is the sensible ending.
Or continue to Xinjiang. Dunhuang to Turpan and Urumqi continues on the same line — the Flaming Mountains, the Jiaohe ruins, the Karez irrigation tunnels. This adds four to six days and takes you further into a region where travel arrangements and access can differ from the rest of the country. Research current conditions carefully and independently before committing, and be aware that Xinjiang is outside the transit-permit area for the same reason Gansu is.
Or go south to Qinghai. Xining is on the line and Qinghai Lake is China's largest, at around 3,200 m. Add three or four days. Qinghai is also outside the transit area.
When to go
May to October. That is the window and it is not flexible.
Summer (June to August) is hot — 35 °C and above in Dunhuang — but it is dry heat and the evenings cool sharply. This is peak season and the Mogao Caves book out furthest ahead.
September and early October is the best compromise: warm days, cold nights, and the desert light at its clearest. Avoid the first week of October for Golden Week.
Winter (November to March) is severe. Temperatures well below freezing, reduced opening hours at several sites, and some day-trip routes closed. The caves stay open with a reduced schedule. Go only if you want the corridor empty and are equipped for it.
Practical notes
Book Mogao first, then build the trip around it. Everything else on this route is flexible. That is not.
Rail tickets release about 15 days ahead on 12306, real-name against your passport. On a five-leg route that window is the constraint on the whole plan.
Distances are long and the towns are small. Zhangye, Jiayuguan and Dunhuang all have limited English. Have translation and written address cards ready.
Desert conditions are real. High UV, low humidity, big day–night temperature swings. Sun protection, lip balm, and more water than you think.
Altitude is modest along the corridor — Zhangye around 1,500 m, Dunhuang around 1,100 m. Mati Si and anything in Qinghai are higher.
Chartered cars are the practical way to see Danxia, Mati Si, the Jiayuguan sites and the Dunhuang western circuit. Arrange through your accommodation the day before.
Official sources
- Dunhuang Academy, Mogao Caves reservations: https://www.mgk.org.cn/
- China Railway 12306, English site: https://www.12306.cn/en/
- National Immigration Administration, visa-free transit permitted areas: https://en.nia.gov.cn/n147418/n147463/c183412/content.html
- Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum: https://www.bmy.com.cn/
Cave ticket categories, capacity caps, seasonal opening hours and permitted transit regions all change. Verify each for your dates.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.