DUNHUANG, China -- Approaching China across the Eurasian continent, one crosses the Tianshan mountains only to be confronted by the mighty Taklamakan Desert, with its sinister epigraph: "If you go in, you won't come out." At Kashgar, the Silk Road divides into two branches, skirting the northern and southern hems of the desert.

For those who survived the trip, the oasis of Dunhuang east of the desert must have been a fine sight indeed. Marco Polo, having journeyed 30 days through the Taklamakan, was one of them.

"The people are for the most part idolaters, but there are also some Nestorian Christians and Saracens," he wrote of the place in his "Travels."