Echoing Sand (Mingsha) Mountains in Dunhuang

Echoing Sand (Mingsha) Mountains in Dunhuang

Attractions Overview: One of the Eight Sights of Dunhuang
Attraction Type: Natural
Chinese Name: 鸣沙山
English Name: Echoing Sand Mountains
Best Time to Visit: All Year Round
Recommended Visiting Time: 2 Hours
Open Hours: Peak season: 5:30-21:30, off season: 7:30-19:30
Admission Fee:120 yuan in peak season and 80 yuan in off season
Address in English: Dunhuang City, Gansu Province
Address in Chinese: 甘肃省敦煌市

More Picture

Why is Echoing Sand Mountains So Special?

Located on the Silk Road, the Echoing-Sand Mountain is known as one of the Eight Great Landscapes of Dunhuang and one of the Four Great Singing Sands of China. Completely piled by sands, the mountain stretches for 40 km in length and 20 km in width respectively, with the highest point reaching 250 meters. When there is wild wind, the sands will be blown up and make loud sound, while the sound sounds like being produced by some ancient musical instrument when blew by breeze, hence the name.

Where is Echoing Sand Mountains

Echoing Sand Mountains lie about five kilometers (about three miles) away from the city of Dunhuang, about 6 kilometers away from central city, 4.1 kilometers from Dunhuang Museum, 12.7 kilometers from Mogao Caves, 74.7 kilometers from Yadang National Geo Park.

How to Get to Echoing Sand Mountains

Travel with China Dragon Tours (top recommended)

If you want to get rid of hustle of transportation and troublesome navigation, you can book a private tour package which covers visiting, dining and transfer from us. Our local tour guide and driver will escort you to Echoing Sand Mountains with speed and convenience, and take care of all the details. You just need to focus on travel.

Independent Travel

For independent travelers you can 

For independent travelers, you can take the public bus No. 3 from Panxuan Road (1 RBM). Travelers can eave take mini-bus directly from Dunhuang Airport or Dunhuang Train Station to the park, which takes only 3 RMB. Convenient and fast taxi is also available, which costs about 15 RMB.

Main Attractions in Echoing Sand Mountains

Crescent Lake

Just like its name indicates, the Crescent Lake is in a natural shape of half-moon and had been commonly considered as one of the Eight Great Landscapes of Dunhuang together with the Echoing-Sand Mountain early in Western Han Dynasty. The water in the lake is so pure and sweet that it looks like an emerald set in the sand. 

Colorful Sand

The Mingsha Mountain is composed of tinny hyaline sands of five different colors – red, yellow, blue, white and black, and winds its way up and down showing different shapes. Some of sand dunes stand like a golden pyramid, some lie as the fish scale, some wave like a snake.

Sand Echoe

The biggest feature of Mingsha Mountain is that the sand echoes here. When a strong wind blows, you can hear loud sound like roaring made by the moving sands. While when light wind blows, the sand echoes like some gentle sound of orchestral music. This is how the mountain gained the name of Mingsha (Echo Sand Mountain).

Useful Travel Tips

  1. Half price for children between 1.2 – 1.4 meters
    Free for children below 1.2m.
  2. The expiration of the entrance ticket is three days after your first checking in, which means you can get back to visit the site again in the second or the third day if you want.

Nearby Attractions

Edited by Emily Wang/王海玲