The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel

The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel was the best hotel I stayed at during my trip from Lanzhou to Urumqi part of the Chinese Silk Road. I selected it because of its proximity to the sand dunes and the rooftop cafe with the view I saw somewhere on the web.

The taxi driver thought it was too far from the city, and wanted me to stay in a hotel in the city, but it is only a five minute cab ride away from the city center, hardly far by my standards. I love the view from the rooftop cafe and was there both at sunrise and sunset to watch the sand dunes.

The hotel architecture sets it apart from any other hotel in Dunhuang, and it occupied a very large area with many buildings and courtyards. It has many restaurants and the food was excellent and not expensive. A walk from the main building to the restaurants using one of the corridors was very pleasant, with view of courtyards.

The Spa and Massage service was good too, I did not go to the separate building where the Spa and Massage was, since there was a sand storm at the time. Instead in-room foot massage was just as good!

They had a large shop in the hotel with many souvenirs and local specialties, and many rugs hung along the hallway for you to view even if you are not buying.

And the hotel had generators for emergency power when the sand storm took out the electricity!

I paid 680 RMB per night (including breakfast) for the room. This is a lot less than the "posted" price at the hotel, but nobody pays posted price anyway in China. You go into the hotel, and ask for their best price, and ask to see the rooms. If you like the room, but not the price, you can perhaps bargain a little and get a better price. Tell them your friend recommended the hotel to you and it may help.

I would rate it a 4.5 star and definitely would stay here again!

What an amazing hotel! Absolutely stunning! The rooms are gorgeous. You can see the beautiful landscape (Sand doons!) from the rooftop. The main hall is lovely and spacious. Everything is super clean (and, perhaps best of all, the bathrooms are nice).
The first and 2nd floors both have small shops with "antiques" (who knows how old the stuff really is), jewelry and carpets. It's fun to peruse . There is a restaurant on the room that I do NOT recommend (see review of The Silk Road Dunhuang Hotel Restaurant), but other than that, the hotel is highly recommended (just go into town for dinner).