Dunhuang

• Name — Dunhuang • Native Name — 敦煌市 • Native Name Lang — zh • Other Name — Tunhwang • Type — County-level city • Image Map — Location of Dunhuang within Gansu (China).png • Map Caption — Dunhuang City (red) in Jiuquan City (yellow) and Gansu • Pushpin Map — China Gansu#China • Pushpin Relief — yes • Pushpin Caption — Location in Gansu • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Name — China • Subdivision Type1 — Province • Subdivision Name1 — Gansu • Subdivision Type2 — Prefecture-level city • Subdivision Name2 — Jiuquan • Seat Type — Municipal seat • Seat — Shazhou Town • Area Total Km2 — 31200 • Population As Of — 2020 • Population Total — 185231 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Time Zone — CST • Utc Offset — +8 • Coor Pinpoint — Dunhuang municipal government • Elevation M — 1142 • Postal Code Type — Postal Code • Postal Code — 736200 • Website — www.dunhuang.gov.cn/

• Pic — Dunhuang (Chinese characters).svg • Piccap — "Dunhuang" in Chinese characters • Picupright — 0.4 • Psp — Tunhwang • C — 敦煌 • W — Tun 1 -huang 2 • P — Dūnhuáng • J — Deon 1 -wong 4 • L — "Blazing Beacon" Dunhuang is a county-level city in northwestern Gansu Province, Northwestern China. According to the 2010 Chinese census, the city has a population of 186,027, though 2019 estimates put the city's population at about 191,800. Known as Sachu (沙洲), it was a major stop on the ancient Silk Road and is best known for the nearby Mogao Caves. Dunhuang is situated in an oasis containing Crescent Lake and the Singing Sand Dunes. Dunhuang commands a strategic position at the crossroads of the ancient Southern Silk Route and the main road leading from India via Lhasa to Mongolia and southern Siberia, and also controls the entrance to the narrow Hexi Corridor, which leads straight to the heart of the north Chinese plains and the ancient capitals of Chang'an (today known as Xi'an) and Luoyang. Administratively, the county-level city of Dunhuang is part of the prefecture-level city of Jiuquan. Historically, the city and/or its surrounding region has also been known by the names Shazhou (prefecture of sand) or Guazhou (prefecture of melons). In the modern era, the two alternative names have been assigned respectively to Shazhou zhen (Shazhou town) which serves as Dunhuang's seat of government, and to the neighboring Guazhou County.

A number of derivations of the name Dunhuang have been suggested by scholars: • Giles 1892: 墩煌 'artificial mound, tumulus, beacon mound, square block of stone or wood' + 'blazing, bright, luminous'. • Mathews (1931) 1944: 敦煌, now usually 'regard as important, to esteem; honest, sincere, generous' + 'a great blaze; luminous, glittering'. • McGraw-Hill 1963: 敦煌 ('honest + shining'). • Jáo and Demieville 1971 (French, Airs de Touen-houang): 燉煌 'noise of burning' + 'great blaze' [per Mathews]. • Lín Yǚtáng 1972: 墩(煌) 'small mound (+ shining)' or 燉(煌) 'to shimmer (+ shining)'. • Kāngxī 1716: 燉煌, also 敦煌 [t=t’]. • Mair 1977, Ptolemy's c. 150 Geography refers to Dunhuang as Greek Θροανα (Throana), possibly from Iranian Druvana meaning something like "fortress for tax collecting."

There is evidence of habitation in the area as early as 2,000 BC, possibly by people recorded as the Qiang in Chinese history. According to Zuo Zhuan and Book of the Later Han, the Dunhuang region was a part of the ancient Guazhou, which was known for its production of melons. Its name was also mentioned in relation to the homeland of the Yuezhi in the Records of the Grand Historian. Some have argued that this may refer to the unrelated toponym Dunhong – the archaeologist Lin Meicun has also suggested that Dunhuan may be a Chinese name for the Tukhara, a people widely believed to be a Central Asian offshoot of the Yuezhi.

During the Warring States period, the inhabitants of Dunhuang included the Dayuezhi people, Wusun people, and Saizhong people (Chinese name for Scythians). As Dayuezhi became stronger, it absorbed the Qiang tribes.

By the third century BC, the area became dominated by the Xiongnu, but came under Chinese rule during the Han dynasty after Emperor Wu defeated the Xiongnu in 121 BC. Dunhuang was one of the four frontier garrison towns (along with Jiuquan, Zhangye, and Wuwei) established by the Emperor Wu after the defeat of the Xiongnu, and the Chinese built fortifications at Dunhuang and sent settlers there. The name Dunhuang, meaning "Blazing Beacon", refers to the beacons (watchtower) lit to warn of attacks by marauding nomadic tribes. Dunhuang Commandery was probably established shortly after 104 BC. Located in the western end of the Hexi Corridor near the historic junction of the Northern and Southern Silk Roads, Dunhuang was a town of military importance. "The Great Wall was extended to Dunhuang, and a line of fortified beacon towers stretched westwards into the desert. By the second century AD, Dunhuang had a population of more than 76,000 and was a key supply base for caravans that passed through the city: those setting out for the arduous trek across the desert loaded up with water and food supplies, and others arriving from the west gratefully looked upon the mirage-like sight of Dunhuang's walls, which signified safety and comfort. Dunhuang prospered on the heavy flow of traffic. The first Buddhist caves in the Dunhuang area were hewn in 353."

During the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties, it was the main stop of communication between ancient China and the rest of the world and a major hub of commerce of the Silk Road. Dunhuang was the intersection city of all three main Silk Routes (north, central, and south) during this time. From the West also came early Buddhist monks, who had arrived in China by the 1st century, and a sizable Buddhist community eventually developed in Dunhuang. The caves carved out by the monks, originally used for meditation, developed into a place of worship and pilgrimage called the Mogao Caves or "Caves of a Thousand Buddhas." Several Christian, Jewish, and Manichaean artifacts have also been found in the caves (see for example Jingjiao Documents), testimony to the wide variety of people who made their way along the Silk Road. The Sogdians established large merchants colonies. During the time of the Sixteen Kingdoms, Li Gao established Western Liang here in 400. In 405, the capital of the Western Liang was moved from Dunhuang to Jiuquan. In 421, Western Liang was conquered by Northern Liang. • Illustration — Tang period (618–907) Buddhist sutra fragment from Dunhuang As a frontier town, Dunhuang was fought over and occupied at various times by non-Han people. After the fall of the Han dynasty, it came under the rule of various nomadic tribes, such as the Xiongnu during the Northern Liang and the Tuoba during Northern Wei. The Tibetan Empire occupied Dunhuang when Tang China became weakened considerably by the An Lushan Rebellion; and even though it was later returned to Tang rule, it was under quasi-autonomous rule by the local general Zhang Yichao, who expelled the Tibetans in 848. After the fall of Tang, Zhang's family formed the Kingdom of Golden Mountain in 910, but in 911, it came under the influence of the Uyghurs. The Zhangs were succeeded by the Cao family, who formed alliances with the Uyghurs and the Kingdom of Khotan.

During the Song dynasty, Dunhuang fell outside the Chinese borders. In 1036 the Tanguts who founded the Western Xia dynasty captured Dunhuang. From the reconquest of 848 to about 1036 (i.e. era of the Guiyi Circuit), Dunhuang was a multicultural entrepot that contained one of the largest ethnic Sogdian communities in China following the An Lushan Rebellion. The Sogdians were Sinified to some extent and were bilingual in Chinese and Sogdian, and wrote their documents in Chinese characters, but horizontally from left to right instead of right to left in vertical lines, as Chinese was normally written at the time.

Dunhuang was conquered in 1227 by the Mongols, and became part of the Mongol Empire in the wake of Kublai Khan's conquest of China under the Yuan dynasty.

During the Ming dynasty, China became a major sea power, conducting several voyages of exploration with sea routes for trade and cultural exchanges. Dunhuang went into a steep decline after the Chinese trade with the outside world became dominated by southern sea routes, and the Silk Road was officially abandoned during the Ming dynasty. It was occupied again by the Tibetans c. 1516, and also came under the influence of the Chagatai Khanate in the early sixteenth century.

Dunhuang was retaken by China two centuries later c. 1715, during the Qing dynasty, and the present-day city of Dunhuang was established east of the ruined old city in 1725.

In 1988, Dunhuang was elevated from county to county-level city status. On March 31, 1995, Turpan and Dunhuang became sister cities. • Illustration — Dunhuang dance Today, the site is an important tourist attraction and the subject of an ongoing archaeological project. A large number of manuscripts and artifacts retrieved at Dunhuang have been digitized and made publicly available via the International Dunhuang Project. The spreading Kumtag Desert, the result of long-standing overgrazing of the surrounding land, has reached the edges of the city. In 2011 satellite images showing huge structures in the desert near Dunhuang surfaced online and caused a brief media stir.

• Illustration — Crescent Lake • Crescent Lake and Singing Sand Dunes • The Yumen Pass, built in 111 BC, located northwest of Dunhuang in the Gobi desert. • The Yang Pass • White Horse Pagoda • Dunhuang Limes Hecang Fortress, located about northeast of the Western-Han-era Yumen Pass, was built during the Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD) and significantly rebuilt during the Western Jin (280–316 AD).

• Dunhuang Museum

• Illustration — Market in Dunhuang in 1991 Dunhuang Night Market is a night market held on the main thoroughfare, Dong Dajie, in the city centre of Dunhuang, popular with tourists during the summer months. Many souvenir items are sold, including such typical items as jade, jewelry, scrolls, hangings, small sculptures, leather shows puppets, coins, Tibetan horns and Buddha statues. A sizable number of members of China's ethnic minorities engage in business at these markets. A Central Asian dessert or sweet is also sold, consisting of a large, sweet confection made with nuts and dried fruit, sliced into the portion desired by the customer.

Dunhuang has a cool arid climate (Köppen BWk), with an annual total precipitation of, the majority of which occurs in summer; precipitation occurs only in trace amounts and quickly evaporates. Winters are long and freezing, with a 24-hour average temperature of in January, while summers are hot, with a July average of; the annual mean is. The diurnal temperature variation averages C-change annually. With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 69% in March to 82% in October, the city receives 3,258 hours of bright sunshine annually, making it one of the sunniest nationwide. The Gansu Dunhuang Solar Park was built in the southwest suburbs of the city to harvest the abundant solar energy.

As of 2020, Dunhuang administers nine towns and one other township-level division. These township-level divisions then administer 56 village-level divisions.

The city's nine towns are Qili, Dunhuang (七里镇), Shazhou, Dunhuang (沙州镇), Suzhou, Dunhuang (肃州镇), Mogao, Dunhuang (莫高镇), Zhuanqukou (转渠口镇), Yangguan, Dunhuang (阳关镇), Yueyaquan, Dunhuang (月牙泉镇), Guojiabu (郭家堡镇), and Huangqu, Dunhuang (黄渠镇).

The city's sole other township-level division is Qinghai Petroleum Authority Life Base.

Prior to 2015, Guojiabu and Huangqu, Dunhuang were administered as townships. Prior to 2019, the city administered Guoying Dunhuang Farm as a township-level division. In 2011, Yueyaquan, Dunhuang was formed from Yangjiaqiao Township.

2019 city estimates put Dunhuang's permanent population at about 191,800. According to the 2010 Chinese census, Dunhuang has a population of 186,027, down slightly from the 187,578 recorded in the 2000 Chinese census. In 1996, the city had an estimated population of 125,000 people. Dunhuang has an urbanization rate of 69.45% as of 2019. In 2019, the city had a birth rate of 9.87‰, and a death rate of 5.69‰, giving it a rate of natural increase of 3.15‰. 97.8% of the city's population is ethnically Han Chinese, with the remaining 2.2% being 27 ethnic minorities, including ethnic Hui, Mongol, Tibetan, Uyghur, Miao, Manchu, Monguor, Kazakh, Dongxiang, and Yugur populations. As of 2019, the annual per capita disposable income of urban residents was ¥36,215, and the annual per capita disposable income of rural residents was ¥18,852.

As of 2019, Dunhuang has a gross domestic product of ¥8.178 billion. The value of the city's primary sector totaled ¥0.994 billion, its secondary sector totaled ¥1.872 billion, and its tertiary sector totaled ¥5.312 billion. As of 2020, Dunhuang has a gross domestic product of ¥7.778 billion. The value of the city's primary sector totaled ¥1.082 billion, its secondary sector totaled ¥1.752 billion, and its tertiary sector totaled ¥4.943 billion.

• Illustration — Dunhuang train station Dunhuang is served by China National Highway 215 and Dunhuang Mogao International Airport. A railway branch known as the Dunhuang railway or the Liudun Railway (柳敦铁路), constructed in 2004–2006, connects Dunhuang with the Liugou Station on the Lanzhou-Xinjiang railway (in Guazhou County). There is regular passenger service on the line, with overnight trains from Dunhuang to Lanzhou and Xi'an. Dunhuang Station is located northeast of town, near the airport. The railway from Dunhuang was extended south into Qinghai, connecting Dunhuang to Subei, Mahai and Yinmaxia (near Golmud) on the Qingzang railway. The central section of this railway opened on 18 December 2019 completing the through route.

• Illustration — The Singing Sand Dunes on the eastern edge of the Kumtag Desert near Dunhuang. • Illustration — Sculpture in Dunhuang, after a mural in Mogao Caves, depicting an Apsara playing the pipa behind her back. • Illustration — Dunhuang Airport • Illustration — Lonely monuments in the desert near Donghuan • Illustration — Rammed earth ruins of a granary