EemdethuongFirst and foremost, this hotel accepts foreigners. The hotel is quite ok but not great. I booked a no-window non-smoking room (don’t do it, go for room with window) because I thought there is more chance people still smoke in non-smoking rooms with windows.
The first room they gave me, put the key card on and electricity didn’t work. Waited for them to check with no result so I was relocated to another room. It’s non-smoking but I can clearly smell the smoke. Took 2 days for the smoke smell to go away which is a pity.
The room is small but enough for a solo like me. Each floor they built 4 lines of rooms, the 2 middle lines stay wall-to-wall to each other and are the ‘no-window’ rooms. I would definitely recommend you to choose the room with window, because it means you don’t share a lot of ‘walls’ to other room and have a window to open at least for circulation if room is smelly or if room is too hot. In my case, my room smells smoke, and the room heater system only allows 34-37 degree celsius which is crazy! Very hot if turned on so I had to turn it off the whole time I stay at the hotel. Even though it is winter time, the whole hotel is already on heater. Unable to adjust room temperature is annoying because it means no air circulation. There is a blowing machine (similar to a fan) in the room but it is not efficient quickly enough. The room feels extremely suffocating. I did really wish for a window. Also because the no-window rooms share 3 walls with other rooms (not counting the upper floor), it’s more bad-luck chances for weird noise. In my case, I had to endure one whole freaking night with 2 loud Uyghur couples who cannot hold themselves back from banging the freak out and making all kinds of terrible terrible noise. Seems like no soundproof for these walls.
KKatKKGAfter we encountered a bad experience with a desert glamping resort in Dunhuang, we were a bit cautious with Dune when we booked it. However, after I communicated with the manager in Dune via WeChat, I was more confident as he was very polite and helpful. He helped us to booked a transfer from Turpan Airport to Dune resort. As our flight arrived Turpan in the evening, it was late when we arrived at Dune. The manager and another staff came to the entrance of the driveway to welcome us and helped us with our luggage. They took us straight to our tent, and they upgraded us to a bigger tent, too.
We woke up to this beautiful Kumtag Desert Sand dunes, right in front of our tent! It was so beautiful. As the off peak season started, we were the only guests there but the staff were serving us with delicious breakfast and dinner. The food was delicious and plentiful! The manager and staff were very attentive to our requests. One of the staff has helped us to arrange a local guide/driver to take us to the Kumtag desert for an exciting ATV ride and sand sliding. We had a great time. We ended up hiring the same guide, a pleasant and calm Uygur young guy to take us for some sightseeing and dropped us back to Turpan.
I would say to anyone who is looking for a real desert glamping, please come to Dune in Shahshan near Turpan instead of Dunhuang.