It’s official! After five years of planning, a state-of-the-art Visitor Center for Dunhuang has been approved by the Chinese government. The Visitor Center will provide an enhanced experience while helping to protect the fragile caves, says Dunhuang Academy director Fan Jinshi. Cui Kai, principal of the China Architecture Design and Research Group, has been named lead architect.

The number of visitors to Mogaoku has been increasingly at a remarkable pace. 44-year-old Wu Yinhui is typical of the more than half a million people who throng to Dunhuang each year. A truck driver from Hunan province, he planned his own ten-day Silk Road tour last summer. “I wanted to understand my own culture,” he said. “The caves are stunning, I never saw anything like this before.”

In 2000 there were 225,000 visitors to this unesco World Heritage Site. By 2006 that number had doubled to more than 550,000. About 90% are domestic, as the Chinese people enjoy newfound wealth and freedom to explore their cultural patrimony. Most come during the late spring to early fall, when attendance can reach 6,000 daily. The carrying capacity for the caves is roughly half that, says Director Fan. Accommodating the burgeoning cultural tourism and the attendant environmental pressures, like fluctuating humidity levels, is a complex undertaking. “Our challenge,” Director Fan observes, “is to balance calls for greater access with our responsibility to conserve this incomparable legacy for future generations.”

The Visitor Center will be located near Dunhuang’s airport and new railroad station, 15 kilometers from the Mogaoku site. Visitors will learn about Dunhuang’s rich history and explore its most majestic cave temples in a 360 degree domed auditorium configured to display vivid digital images of the wall paintings and sculptures. A cafe, museum shop and other amenities will complete the complex. After enjoying the Visitor Center and learning about Dunhuang’s 1,700-year history at the crossroads of the Silk Road, visitors will travel by shuttle bus to the ancient site for guided tours.

Mogao’s 492 lavishly decorated cave temples record the extraordinary confluence of cultures that shaped western China: Han, Tibetan, Mongolian, Indian, central Asian, and even Greek and Roman influences are represented. The site’s scale and richness are difficult even for academics and lifelong devotees to absorb. The Visitor Center will help make this complex history more accessible.

The Visitor Center plan was developed after extensive research into international best practices at other cultural sites. Digital images of the statuary and wall murals will create exciting “up close and personal” educational possibilities for school children. Scholars around the world will find a digital archive invaluable. A permanent digital record of the caves will also be an indispensable tool for conservation work, notes Vice Director Wang Xudong.

Digital exploration of the caves has many advantages. For conservation reasons, the lighting in the caves is dim, which can make the wall paintings difficult to view. Other caves, in the process of being conserved or simply too fragile, are closed to tourists. All of these caves can be explored in splendid, luminous detail via digital media.

The overall project budget, including building the Visitor Center, digitizing 150 caves, and costs for reinforcing the cliff face, sand control and security, is RMB 260 million or about $38 million. The Chinese government will provide 70% of the funds, about $26 million. The Dunhuang Academy hopes to raise the additional $12 million from overseas friends to ensure the project is carried out to the highest international standards.

Fan Jinshi, her life’s work of conservation and education advancing in step with technology, is optimistic Dunhuang will flourish for many, many generations to come.

1. Arrive at Visitor Center and view multimedia exhibits.
2. View a documentary film about Dunhuang’s historic place on the Silk Road, then experience the best caves in a virtual-reality domed theater.
3. Meet guides and board Dunhuang Academy buses for the 15 kilometer ride to Mogaoku.
4. Cross a new bridge over the Daquan River to see the famous Library Cave, then visit selected caves, concluding at Cave 96 (the giant Buddha).
5. Enjoy interactive multimedia displays in the refurbished Exhibition Center.
6. After returning to the Visitor Center, purchase books and souvenirs in the Gift Shop, or visit the Café.

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