Tourist delight

Now Mogao Grottoes receives about 6,000 visitors every day. In peak seasons such as the National Day holiday in October, daily attendance can reach 12,000 people.

Although president Fan designed eight different routes to divert tourists and all visitors must be taken through the caves with a guide, each tourist spends about 90 minutes in the caves.

Dunhuang Academy president Fan Jinshi.Chen Xi / For China Daily

According to the Academy's observation, when 40 people stay in a cave for 30 minutes, the temperature rises by four degrees and the content of carbon dioxide increases by five times.

"The murals, even those we think have been well protected, already look very different compared to photos taken in 1908," Sun says.

Fan will try to convince the tourists to spend more time in a visitors' center when it opens in May 2014.

The center contains an interactive, documentary screening room and high-fidelity duplications of the caves with a tourist reception hall, a multimedia display area, a digital theater, a dome theater, restaurants, shopping area and other facilities.

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Tourists will learn about the grottoes' beauty and their value in the center, which decreases the time they spend inside the caves.

The merits of the digitization will enhance the interactive experiences for tourists by leading them on a virtual tour of the caves and allow them a closer look at the intricate details of the murals that may not be easily appreciated inside the dark caves.

Fan expects the center will reduce the time tourists stay in the real caves to one hour.

"We never claim the virtual tour can replace the experience of the real caves," says Fan. "To conserve the site we all need to put in some effort. It can be an endless process. But, just like an old person having operations, we will not complain that it's way too many."