Entry 1: A New City
January 7- 700 AD

I set my bags down onto the new soil and unloaded my goods off of the back of the camel that I had bought back in my hometown of Hami. I had reached my first destination, Dunhuang, a renowned trading town. Upon arriving I was surprised to see Buddhist Monks flowing into a cave approximately 200 feet away from my tethered horse. As it was noon, the first order of business was to figure out whether I would be continuing to my next destination that day, or admire the culture of Dunhuang before leaving the following morning. As a Confucianist, I chose to leave my tethered horse and investigate the cave in order to receive a better understanding of the Buddhist culture. As I entered the mysterious cave with a crowd of slow-moving monks, I was surprised upon viewing the interior of the cave. The cave was like nothing I had ever seen before. There were statues of Buddha carved into the rock in many locations as well as colorful displays of the meditating Siddhartha. I turned to one of the monks that was beside me and said, “I have never seen a work of art so magnificent.” The monk laughed and said, “this is the smallest Buddhist cave in the city, go to the cave which is north 25 km from this cave entrance and you will understand true magnificence.” Following this advice, I left the cave, saddled my horse, and set off from my short travel to the northernmost portion of the city. Before leaving for these spectacular caves, I decided to pack 10 pounds of silk just in case, before hiding the rest of my stash under a tree. After passing house after generic house, my gaze was immediately taken by a marvelous market square that looked to have traders with many goods. As I approached the market square I brought my horse to a halt and tethered my stallion before going to inspect the merchandise before me. I was ecstatic to see vendors selling massive amounts of silks of many varieties, cotton, wool, tea, ceramics, medicine, fragrances, jade, camels, sheep, dye, dried fruits, tools, and embroideries. By making a deal with a nice native trader of Dunhuang I exchanged a pound of silk for 5 pounds of grapes because I did not pack the necessary resources to sustain myself. After leaving the marketplace I realized that I must quickly visit the larger caves before sundown. After traveling the remaining distance, I spotted a sight that I had never imagined was possible. In front of me were four humongous Chinese Buddhist temples made of wood. Between the temples were at least 14,000 monks. Scattered around the temples were about 500 Mogao Cave openings. I also saw gigantic Buddhist carvings, these carvings were one of the most spectacular things I had ever seen. I turned and looked at the sun placement, and realizing that sundown was approaching quickly, I unfortunately did not have the time to go inside. Upon returning back to the village center at dusk, I tethered my horse to the tree that I had left my silk surplus behind. To my astonishment, all of my silk was missing. I heard footsteps behind me and spun around quickly. A woman who looked to be in her later fifties was facing me and said, “Hello, are you the young man who left your silk here?” I reacted “YES! DID YOU STEAL IT???!!!” The woman took a step back and said “My name is Bo Zhao, and I have your silk at my house. I wanted to keep it safe in case the wrong person came across it.” Relieved, I followed the-woman back to her house. Later that night, as I was conversing with Bo, I found out that she too was a silk weaver, just like my mother had been. Bo explained to me that it was accustomed for almost all of the women in Dunhuang to be silk weavers. Bo offered for me to spend the night and I graciously accepted.