Shazhou Night Market - A Bite of Dunhuang

You can’t say you have been to Dunhuang without tasting the local food in Shazhou Night Market. Dunhuang food focuses on wheat flour noodles flavored by a few meats of lamb, beef, donkey and chicken. Here is most popular food listed.

Dunhuang Rang Pi

Dunhuang Rang Pi, literally meaning Dunhuang Brewed Bean Jelly, is the TOP ONE snack Dunhuang. Rang Pi is a wheat-flour made snack with a long history of over than one thousand years. It has become an indispensable folk snack in Dunhuang. At a first sight, you will droll over Dunhuang Rang Pi . Some are bright yellow, some are jade white. Imparting proper-proportion of condiment including mustard, garlic juice, chili sauce, soybean sauce and vinegar, it will be peppery but cool, soft and silky but never lacking a bit of chew.

Yellow Noodle

From the mural in No. 156 Grotto of Mogao Cave, we can learn that ramen is a traditional food in China with long history. Yellow Noodle is such a kind of ramen prevailed in Dunhuang, renown as Wonder in China. As yellowish dough at first, it become thin and long in the hands of the skilled cook. Seeming like golden threads, it tastes delicate and owning a food texture. You can mix with cooked vegetable, or add it to soups, both making a luring dish. Shunzhang Yellow Noodle Restaurant is a centuries-old restaurants selling authentic Yellow Noodle.

Sweet Fruits

In ancient time, Dunhuang was called Melon State as well. So it will be the biggest pity if you never taste the fruit in Dunhuang. Because of the long-time sunshine and strong sunlight, the fruits produced in Dunhuang are extremely sweet. There is one special kind of pear recommendable named Xiangshui Pear. Dipping it in the cool water for 15 minutes, you’ll find the surface is frozen. Peel the thin ice and rind, and then you can appreciate the pure color and delicious pear. Dunhuang grapes are comparable with Turpan grapes. Eating fresh grapes, drinking grape-brewed wine or having currant, you can taste the perfect flavor of Dunhuang grapes. Other fruits with sufficient water and high sugar and various candied fruit are waiting for your taste.

Apricot Peel Water

Apricot Peel Water is a specialty drink in Dunhuang. In Shazhou Night Market, you will find that almost every tourist has one cup of Apricot Peel Water at hand. Within 10 RMB, you can enjoy the sweet and sour water. Iced water will be much better and refresh your body from head to feet. Unlike ordinary plum syrup or mung bean porridge, Apricot Peel Water stands out not only for its better taste, but also because it can relieve summer-heat and refresh our lungs. In the following days out Dunhuang, you will recall a cup of cool Apricot Peel Water.

Other Snacks worth Trying

A diversity of noodles is going to satisfy your picky taste bud to the maximum limit including Lvrou Huangmian, Dunhuang Saozimian, Jiangshumian etc. If you care more about meat, don’t worry because there are more choices for you, like Barbecue, shish kebab, Haggis, Hu Lamb Pizza and so on which you can’t count.

If you aim to take some souvenir of “Dunhuang style” home, visiting Shazhou Night Market is a most preferred option. The street is lined with antique-architectural-style buildings on its two sides. These stalls full of bright shines extend to far from north to south. Central-located little stalls are also set in delicate wooden house, compact but never mussy. Most of the vendors are pretty girls in colorful dress, greeting customers with passionate smiles.

There are large assortments of crafts at reasonable price for you to choose. The artists portrayed the exquisite murals of Mogao Caves or amazing Yardan landform or tremendous dessert dunes on the canvas, scarves, gourds and slates. The vivid miniatures engraved in kinds of carriers will make you fondle admiringly. A mini ceramic camel, a jade bracelet, a special-shaped stone or just a souvenir medal may also catch your eyes and make you difficult to have a window shopping. After all, each of them acts as a reminiscence of the fine days in Dunhuang.

Want to a cup of coffee or tea and quietly enjoy charming Dunhuang? Of course dozens of bars, keeping quiet in the busy night market, can meet your needs. These buildings show a typical Dunhuang-style and the inside walls hang on beautiful pictures copying the murals of Mogao Caves. Ancient wooden table, warm light, exceptional melodious light music creating a comfortable environment, you can release your tiredness and relax yourself. You can also communicate with strange tourists and exchange your experience and you may reap new friendship.

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Near Dunhuang downtown area, 13 km away from Dunhuang Airport and 11 km away from Dunhuang Railway Station, Shazhou Night Market is very convenient to get to.

Independent Traveler

Airport Shuttle Bus can take you to Shazhou Night Market within 20 minutes at a cost of 6 RMB. Public bus is available from Railway station to Dunhuang City and then you need to walk about dozens of minutes. Taxi in Dunhuang is inexpensive and time-saving

Travel with ChinaDiscovery

If you want to get rid of hustle of public transportation and troublesome navigation, you can book a private tour package which covers sightseeing, dining and transfer from us. Our knowledgeable local tour guide and skilled driver will escort you to Shazhou Night Market with speed and convenience, and take care of all the details. You just need to focus on sightseeing.

It usually takes 2~4 days to cover the main highlights in Dunhuang. Just like the Terracotta Warriors in Xi’an, the 2000-year-old Mogao Grottoes is the essence in a Dunhuang trip. Here you can admire thousands of colorfully painted Buddhist statues and have an eye-feast on the exquisite mural paintings. After that, you can go to the Echoing Sand Mountains to have fun in the vast desert and find out why Crescent Lake has never dried up for so many years. On the next day, go explore the remote wild Gobi desert landscape and several legendary historical sites such as Yumen Pass (Jade Gate Pass) which used to be a military defensive pass as well as an important border for international trade along the ancient Silk Road, and Yadan National Geological Park which features Yardang landforms in distinct shapes as you can imagine like Mongolian Bao, Stone Bird, Peacock and others. If you have more days, you can take an in-depth Gansu tour to Lanzhou, Zhangye, Jiayuguan or travel a little farther to the beautiful Xian, Qinghai, Urumqi, and Kashgar.

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