Dunhuang lies at the western end of the Gansu Corridor, called Hexi Zoulang. The name Dunhuang originally meant "prospering, flourishing"-- a hint that Dunhuang must once have been an important city. Its position at the intersection of two trade routes was what made Dunhuang flourish. The coming and going of horse and camel caravans carried new thoughts, ideas, arts and sciences to the East and West.

Although it was only a small oasis town located in the desert of northwestern China, Dunhuang became the site of the largest complex of ancient Chinese art. Particularly, the Mogao Caves, the largest in the world and the best preserved treasure-house of Buddhist art, keeping 492 caves, 45,000 square meters of murals, and about 3,000 painted statues.

Dunhuang was first established as a prefecture, it was a commercial hub on the road from Chang'an, the capital of the Han Dynasty, to the west and the center of the traffic network between the north and the south entering central China.

In 400, border defence official Li Gao established a political power called Xiliang in Dunhuang. He expanded his territory and attached great importance to agriculture and education. Great numbers of scholars and artists came from central China. They showed outstanding achievements in classical studies and arts.

Dunhuang was the first place that came to know Indian Buddhism whose teachings and tenets served as a tranquilizer to the people who were tired of long wars and social disturbances. Buddhism became a prevailing religion in Dunhuang for more than a thousand years.

The Mogao Grottes, popularly known as the Thousand Buddhas Caves, were built on the eastern cliff of Mingsha Mountain, 25 kilometres to the south-east of DunHuang city. The Dangguan River flows through it, nurturing a rare piece of oasis full of vitality.

When entering the mountain gully, numerous caves on a stretch of 1600 meters carved out on the steep cliffs of the Minsha Mountain can be seen. It is a 1,000-year-old ancient art gallery still living today. Each cave and each mural has its own story. The earliest cave was carved 1630 years ago.

It is said that in 366 A.D. a monk named Yuezun saw 1000 Buddhas over the Sanwei Mountain opposite the cliff of the Mingsha Mountain, so the devout believer set to carve grottoes into the sandstone cliff and fill them with buddhist images. Thereafter people came in flocks to carve caves to express their belief in the Buddhas. Since then more and more caves have been excavated over a thousand year.

The construction of the Mogao Grottoes spanned more than a thousand years ranging from the Early Qin, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia and Yuan. But it was the Tang Dynasty that was really its heyday. During this period more than one thousand caves were carved.

It is a magnificent art treasures filling the famed Mogao Grottoes, among the ancient and consummate creations in China, carved the time of the Mongolian conquest. The grottoes show an uninterrupted history of Chinese painting, over a period of nearly a thousand years. The art of the Mogao Grottoes is composed of cave architecture, sculptures and murals. There are now 482 caves with 4500 square meters of murals and 2500 sculptures. The Mogao art features five Tang and Song wooden cave buildings and 50,000-volume "Dunhuang Books". The treasure is one of the greatest cultural discoveries in the 20th century.

The frescoes evolve one story after another, telling of the strife between the good and the evil and the extreme happy life in the paradise. The heaven and the earth thus seemed to have unified into one. The colored sculptures, frescoes and ancient buildings were the crystallization and materialization of the spirit and life of the builders and artists and the worshippers of the day.

The "Dunhuang Books" date back to 359 as the earliest and to 1196 the latest, spanning the dynastic 837 years of the 16 States, Northern Wei, Sui, Tang, the Five Dynasties, Northern Song, Southern Song and Jin. The documents are written in the language of the ethnic Hans as well as in Turfan, Uygur, Turkish, Yu Zhen, Syrian, Xixia, Lu, Sanskrit, Lite and Mongolian. They cover the Four Confucian classics, the literature of Buddhism, Taoism, Jingism and Moniism as well as local records, accounting books, musical scores, choreographic records, astronomy, calendars, arithmetic, medical literature, stories, poetry, biographies and travelogues.

The historical records cover economy, polities, religion, philosophy, literature, history, geography, music, dances, natural science, applied techniques, national relations, trade, national customs, education, linguistics and textual criticism of ancient records.