This was a lazy day. I booked the Yangtse cruise at a travel agency on the ground floor of the hotel and then we went for a meal to a small restaurant opposite the hotel. We had steamed bread rolls which we filled with fritters and sliced celery and spring onion, apparently a popular breakfast in this part of China. We then went for a walk to buy some coffee in a supermarket and came, almost by accident, to the Buddhist temples. There were the inevitable golden statues of the Buddha and the fearsome monstrous beings which are supposed to protect the Buddha. A number of people were bowing and praying before the Buddha, or lighting candles and incense sticks. A spooky room was full of life-sized statues, presumably of notable Buddhist functionaries in the past.
Temple and tower block
The Yangtse from our room. It is brown with silt and the river which meets it is blue because it has run through the desert
Breakfast
Breakfast restaurant and one satisfied customer
Perfume shop
Buddha protectors
Beauty and the beast
Painted clay life-sized images of significant Buddhists
The opera we saw in Dunhwang had a scene showing this Buddhist feature
Exit from the temple
Street food
Our kebabs being cooked
Buddhist temple
