Top 10 Chinese Silk Road Cities

The desert oasis city that was the last major stop before the Gobi Desert crossing houses the Mogao Caves, a UNESCO site containing the world's finest repository of Silk Road Buddhist art.

China's westernmost city sits at a crucial Silk Road junction in Xinjiang where the Northern and Southern routes converged, and its centuries-old Id Kah Mosque and Sunday bazaar still thrill visitors.

The Xinjiang oasis city sits 154 metres below sea level in the Tarim Basin and is famous for its grape cultivation, karez irrigation tunnels, and the haunting ruins of ancient Gaochang city.

The capital of Xinjiang and the world's most inland major city is an extraordinary ethnic mosaic of Uyghur, Han, Kazakh, and Mongol cultures, home to spectacular Silk Road museums.

The westernmost fortress of the Great Wall marked the formal boundary of the Chinese empire, where departing merchants left the civilised world and entered the treacherous Gobi crossing.

Marco Polo spent a year in this Gansu oasis city and marvelled at its giant reclining Buddha — today it is better known for the psychedelic Danxia geological landform of multicoloured clay mountains.

The Yellow River capital of Gansu Province was a critical Silk Road hub where the river could be crossed, and today is the birthplace of China's most beloved noodle dish, Lanzhou beef noodles.

An ancient oasis kingdom that once produced Buddhist pilgrims, translators, and musicians celebrated across the Tang dynasty empire, Kuqa's cave temple complex at Kizil rivals Dunhuang in scale.

One of the Silk Road's most important jade-trading cities, Hotan in southern Xinjiang is still famous for its white nephrite jade collected from the Yurungkash River and its vivid Sunday market.