Gansu

Gansu stretches across Northwest China in a long, narrow shape, and is the most spectacular section of the Silk Road within China. The Mogao Caves (also known as the Thousand Buddha Grottoes) in Dunhuang are the world's largest and most extensive Buddhist art repository, with their murals and painted sculptures remaining vivid and dazzling even after a millennium; the Singing Sand Dunes embrace the Crescent Moon Spring, where the vast desert and crystal-clear spring have coexisted for thousands of years.

Zhangye's colorful Danxia landform boasts brilliant, mottled hues like splashed-ink landscape paintings, and was rated the most beautiful Danxia formation by *China National Geographic*; Jiayuguan Pass is the western terminus of the Ming Great Wall, famed as the 'First and Greatest Pass Under Heaven' as it stands imposingly on the Gobi Desert; the Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui are built clinging to the cliff face, and are hailed as the 'Oriental Sculpture Gallery'.