Shopping in Dunhuang
Night market, (Downtown). Good dried fruits and nuts (walnuts, dates, raisins, apricots, small tomatoes...). Many souvenirs. Note that some people sell wood stamps, pretending It's made from the rare Huyang tree, but It's not. Huyang Tree is too soft to be carved.
Dunhuang City is a favorite tourist city in China, but not a modern city and it maybe a little difficult to find large, luxurious emporiums or supermarkets here. In spite of this, tourists' will find handcrafts, gifts and souvenirs readily available in Dunhuang City. Dunhuang City was called 'Gua (melon) Zhou' in ancient times, meaning the hometown of fruits. Dunhuang City is teeming with many kinds of fragrant sweet fruits; some excellent kinds are particular to Dunhuang City that you may not find in other places.
Handcrafts of carpet, painted sculpture, craftworks of camels, luminous cup, calligraphy and painting and Dunhuang wax printing, etc are the most famous. Luminous Cup, known as a Yangguan Jade Cup, is a rare drinking vessel that glows in the dark, hence the name. The cup is made of the fine jade quarried from Mt. Qilian containing abundant mineral substances. Using the cup to drink is good for people's health. Camels are the most important animal for transportation on ancient Silk Road, which is called the pride of desert and people venerate its grittiness and hardworking, make flannelette effigies of it. It has been taken as the mascot of the China Art Festival. Now it is a specialty local tourist souvenir. The recommended factories or stores for tourists to buy handcrafts are as follows.
Dunhuang Shi Luminous Cups Factory (manufacturers of luminous cups)
Address: No.11, Yangguan Road (East)
Dunhuang Shi Carpets Factory (manufacturers of handcrafts of carpets)
Address: No.24 Danghe Road (North)
Dunhuang Painting and Calligraphy Yuan (selling paintings and calligraphies)
Address: No.36, Mingshan Road
Crescent Lake Craftworks Factory (manufacturers of art wares)
Address: Crescent Lake Village of Yangjia Bridge
Museum Store (selling paintings, calligraphies and antiques)
Address: No.8, Yangguan Road (East)
Shazhou Market, located on the East Yangguan Road, is a recommended place to buy locally made products. Those above mentioned products are available in the market, especially the delicate rubbing of fresco in the Mogao Cave. Moreover, there are snack stalls, craftworks and also the local fruits, you can choose whatever you like or want there. For the various kinds of fruits, local people developed preserved fruits products recently. Preserved fruits together with Dunhuang Wine will make fine gifts for relatives and friends.
Tips: In the market, you can bargain for most of the goods.
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