The Silk Road has long held a fascination for travelers both during ancient and modern times. With the summer vacation now nearly here now it is a great time to head off along the original route from Shaanxi Province east to Gansu and then Xinjiang. Along the way you can see some of the most enduring features – the religious art painted in caves by travelers long ago.

From the China end, it’s best to start in Xi’an, where restaurants still serve “Shaanxi Beef Noodles” that conjure up the thought of Italians, and of course Marco Polo. Freshly made, it’s an acrobatic dance to see the vendors toss their noodles in the air. They majestically tease the long strands of flour gradually with water paste into six-foot long strings, slung around their shoulders, before boiling, steaming, and serving them with a local sauce. Watching the process, Italy, really, doesn’t seem so far away.

Xi’an itself has undergone a Renaissance these past few years, with ancient pagodas and the city walls, impressive all, rubbing shoulders with the new, but classically designed buildings that show off the ancient capital’s proud history. Just an hour away, lie the famed Terracotta Warriors, but it’s the silk road we’re on, and we must head west.

The genes of those who ended up here having traveled east – from Persia, Arabia and Central Asia – still live on in Xi’an . Blue lanterned restaurants denote Halal restaurants. Prepared according to the Koran, these temples of central Asian delights serve bowls of spiced lamb, aubergines and thick red beef tomatoes – along with nan breads, more noodles and if you’re lucky, sticky sweet cups of Arabic coffee. They’re run by the old Silk Road descendants, and you can see the wild almond eyes of their predecessors within the dark complexions and skull caps.

The Xi’an scene is interesting, but Dunhuang further west in Gansu is the real key to the route. Much has been written about Dunhuang: the ancient scrolls found in one of the caves, and the cave paintings. The latter is the one that truly impresses and excites the imagination. A collection of Buddhist, Christian, Zororastrianism, Manichism traders and holy men, all faced the imposing task of corssing the Taklimakan, spirits, thieves, shifting sands and all. No wonder they congregated here to seek heavenly assistance!

The Taklimakan looms large here. Just some 200 km further west, it’s a nasty, gritty, searing furnace of a desert, with hot winds whipping over from the Mongolian Gobi, its shreds of sharp granite crystallized rocks spearing the unwary camel or horse. Clearly it is not a place man is meant to be. The sands devour and kill, and has done for time immemorial. Sometimes it teases, and enterprising souls set up villages, even towns. Yet 50 years on they again sit beneath sand, their well-source suddenly dry, or their life-giving stream suddenly moved.

The Taklimakan is a chess board for demons, and here in Dunhuang the humans play their religious card as a kind of hopeful joker against the worst the evil spirits can do. For carved into Dunhuangs sandstone cliffs are nearly 500 caves, three or four tiers deep, spread along a cliff face for over a mile. Some are a hundred feet up. All have been carved out by the pious, the devout, or the merely very afraid, with interiors covered in scenes of religious icons: a thousand Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Hindu angels, Tibetan demons, John the Baptist, Lotus flowers. The influences of central asia run deep here, China, India, Persia, the tribes of central Asia all came this way and left their destiny in their deities hands. But not just the gods were depicted. Everyday scenes, of women dressed in silks, noblemen, and traders, Arabs with hooked noses, Europeans with big ears, Africans resplendent in lion skins, turbaned muhgals, and Chinese princesses are all escorted by elephants, and peacocks aplenty.

Strolling along from cave to cave, the ancient pigments come to life: malachite green, ochre, lapis lazuli all depicting life on earth, and to some extent, hope for paradise. Knowing that death may be near, the hopeful painted scenes of flowing waters, flying asparas, and bountiful forests full of fruit.

Crossing the Taklimakan – well that’s been tackled in the June issue of China Expat. But on the way to Turpan, stop to see where the finest wines in China are grown (see China Expat, April 2006). En route to Urumqi, we stop off at the wonderfully named Beziklik. Set on an outcrop of rock, funneled out amidst previously rampaging summer melt waters flushing out annually the Flaming Cliffs, bright red earth and iron ore burns your eyes. At sunset, it seems the very land is grilled, a dry steak, scorched by the desert sun for the giant demons of the desert. But those deep water eroded valleys are what gives Beziklik life, for they still trickle water, and around grow almonds, poplars, berries and herbs.

Smaller than Dunhuang, and consequently not as well known, Beziklik seems to be more a celebration of life than its more famous neighbor. And it too, has caves where monks still live, and the chanting of mantras at this peaceful spot are more evocative than Dunhuang’s curious tourists. Again, the Buddhas, Boddhisattvas, Hindu angels and Tibetan demons return, carpeted on beds of lotus and rose petals. Beziklik commends survival – you’ve crossed the desert, and lived. And the ancient paintings, terrifying as some of the images may be, by now seem friendlier, and forgiving. You crossed the Taklimakan, and survived the test they set in Dunhuang. The noodles later tonight will taste really good.

Chris Devonshire-Ellis has traveled extensively in Central Asia & Xinjiang Province in China. This is the first of a summer series in which he will write about the silk road.

Recommended Resources: Colin Thurbron, “Shadow Of The Silk Road”, Chatto & Windus 2006The Beziklik Thousand : www.meshrep.com/chinatrip/bizeklik/bizeklik.htmInternational Dunhuang Project: www.idp.bl.ukBuddhist Art From The Silk Road: www.textile-art.com.dun1.htmlChina Expat archives: April 2006