Singing Sand Dunes

Interesting facts

Singing dunes are rare: the booming effect is known from only about 35 desert sites worldwide, and the sound can reach roughly 105 decibels.

For sand to sing, its grains generally need to be rounded, about 0.1 to 0.5 millimetres across, rich in silica and dry enough.

Among China's four famous singing sands, the dunes of Hami rather than Dunhuang are usually said to give the finest sound.

Under the Eastern Han dynasty the range was known as Shajiao Shan, the Sand Horn Mountain.

The dune range covers about 20 kilometres from north to south as well as some 40 kilometres from east to west, peaking at 1,715 metres above sea level.

Despite constant strong winds, the dunes have coexisted with Crescent Lake for many centuries without burying it.

Crescent Lake is only about 150 metres long and 50 metres wide, and in earlier times it was also known as the Medicine Spring.

After a five-year study begun in 1997, geologists concluded that Crescent Lake forms where groundwater fed by the Dang River seeps up in a low hollow between alluvial fans.

The dunes and Crescent Lake became a national scenic area in 1994 and gained China's highest 5A tourist rating in July 2015.

Why it is worth it

The Singing Sand Dunes rise directly behind the oasis town of Dunhuang, at the edge of the Kumtag Desert in Gansu: a range of sharply crested dunes that stretches for about 40 km, the highest point reaching around 250 m. From the crests the view runs from pale desert to the green fields of the oasis, and in low evening light the knife-edge ridges throw long shadows across each other.

The name describes a real phenomenon. When wind moves the sand, or when people slide down the slopes, the dry grains can produce a low humming or drumming sound, and these dunes are counted among the four famous singing sands of China. Their old name was the "Gods' Sand Dunes"; the historian Sima Qian, in the Records of the Grand Historian, wrote of a sound like music heard in fine weather, and the present name dates from the Ming dynasty. They are also listed among the Eight Great Landscapes of Dunhuang.

Cradled in a hollow between the dunes lies Crescent Lake (Yueyaquan), a spring-fed pool shaped like a new moon, and its survival amid the dunes is the best-known sight of the area. The travellers Mildred Cable and Francesca French, who saw it in 1932, were enchanted by its beauty. The lake shrank sharply in the late twentieth century — from a maximum depth of 7.5 m in 1960 to just over a metre by the 1990s — and has been slowly recovering since restoration work began in 2006. The site is part of the Dunhuang geopark and is rated among China's top tourist attractions; camel caravans, sand sledding and paragliding are all on offer.

Getting there

The dunes begin about 6 km south of Dunhuang, close to the edge of town. Dunhuang Mogao International Airport (DNH) is about 15 km away.

Singing Sand Dunes

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

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