The main route does not need a border permit
Urumqi, Turpan, Kashgar city, and Dunhuang are covered by your passport plus a China visa or unilateral visa-free entry. The 240-hour visa-free transit policy does not include Xinjiang or Gansu, so it cannot be used for this route. A trip onto the Pamirs, including Muztagh Ata, needs a free electronic border permit, applied for in person in Kashgar or Urumqi. The one ticket to reserve before you fly is the Mogao Caves.
Your China entry document decides the whole route
Xinjiang has no region-wide travel permit and no separate Xinjiang visa. Dunhuang is in Gansu and is not a border zone. Both places use the same entry document.
A tourist visa (L visa) or a residence permit works. If the application asks where you will stay in China, list Xinjiang and Gansu.
Unilateral visa-free entry, often 30 days, works when your passport is on China’s current list. Check that list with the National Immigration Administration before you fly.
The 240-hour visa-free transit policy does not work. Its stay area leaves out Xinjiang and Gansu. Entering Beijing or Shanghai on that policy does not allow a flight on to Urumqi or a visit to Dunhuang.
Xinjiang: passport only, or a border permit
From 15 April 2026, new border permits are electronic only. Paper permits already issued stay valid until they expire. The permit is free. Mainland residents aged 16 and over can apply online in the “Immigration 12367” app. Foreign visitors, overseas Chinese, and residents of Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan cannot apply online. They must go to the window in person.
A passport and your China entry document are enough for these places:
Urumqi, Tianchi on Tianshan, and Turpan Kashgar city and the old town, and Kuqa Yining, Sayram Lake, Nalati, and Keketuohai Kanas and Hemu Dunhuang, in Gansu: the Mogao Caves, and Mingsha Mountain and Yueyaquan
Places that need an electronic border permit
An electronic border permit is required for these places:
Tashkurgan, including Karakul Lake, Muztagh Ata, Panlong Gudao, and the road toward Khunjerab Baihaba. Ask the window, before you travel, whether foreign visitors may enter the village that year Land ports and border cooperation centers, including Khorgos, Alashankou, Baketu, and Jeminay Wuqia, the Muji crater, Baisha Lake, and the Bayanbulak section of the Duku Highway. Call 12367 before you go and ask whether they are inside a border zone that day
Where to apply, and what to bring
A highway checkpoint does not issue the permit. Have it before you enter the zone.
Where to apply. Use the exit-entry office of a county-level public security bureau or above, or a police station that office names. In practice, apply in Kashgar or Urumqi. For the Pamirs, finish the application in Kashgar before you go south. A guide may come with you. The applicant must be there.
What to bring. Bring the passport you used to enter China. Fill in the electronic border-permit form. The name must match the passport. The office can take the ID photo at no charge. Some offices ask for your hotel registration slip, so bring it. A child under 16 does not apply alone. The guardian applies in person and lists the child as accompanying, with proof of guardianship such as a birth certificate.
How long it takes. A complete file is issued on the spot. If the office needs a further check, it gives you a receipt and decides within 10 working days of acceptance. Leave a working day in the plan. Do not schedule the drive south for the morning you apply. The permit arrives by email or as a printout at the office. Show it on your phone, or show the printout, together with your passport. It can be used more than once while it is valid. It cannot be extended.
The permit itself is free. A separate charge called a “border permit fee” is not an official fee. A guide or a car, if it has its own price, belongs on the itinerary, not on this permit.
Four steps for foreign passports at the Mogao Caves
On WeChat, follow the account “莫高窟参观预约网”. Open Ticket Booking in the booking menu.
Type your name exactly as it is printed in your passport. If the ticket, the passport, and the person do not match, the window will not issue the paper slip.
At the ticket window of the Digital Exhibition Center, exchange your passport for the paper Mogao ticket slip.
On a regular ticket, the visit is two digital films, the shuttle, then eight caves. The shuttle and the cave guide are included in the ticket.
How to book, and how the day runs
Dunhuang is open on your passport. The Mogao Caves use real-name, timed tickets. The Dunhuang Academy has not authorized any third party to sell tickets. Offers that say they can grab tickets, or that they hold an inside quota, are not official.
Where to buy. Use Ticket Booking in the WeChat account above. Travel agencies use www.mgk.org.cn. Booking is open from 7:00 to 22:00. From 22:00 to 7:00 the system is closed for settlement, so you cannot book or refund. The dates shown in the account are the dates on sale. In peak season the regular ticket is capped at 6,000 a day. Buying after you arrive in Dunhuang often means the regular tickets are gone.
Prices follow the Dunhuang Academy notice of 30 March 2026 and the Academy’s ticket page. A foreign tourist passport pays full price. Discounts and free entry are tied to the documents named in that notice. A tourist passport by itself is not a discount document. Children under 4 are free when a guardian brings them and shows an ID the notice accepts.
Regular ticket, peak season, 1 April–30 November: CNY 238. It includes two digital films, eight caves, the shuttle, and the cave guide. Book this one. The daily cap is 6,000.
Regular ticket, off season, 1 December–31 March: CNY 140. It includes the digital films and the caves. The ticket page lists 10 caves. The emergency ticket is not used in the off season.
Emergency ticket: CNY 100, and only in peak season, and only on days the Academy opens that mode. It covers four caves and does not include the films. The published check-in is a scan of a Chinese resident ID card at Hall 2. If you hold a passport, call 4008-333-715 before you buy, and ask whether your passport can be checked.
Special caves: the price is posted that day at the cave-area desk. They are limited. Buy them only after your regular or emergency visit, at the special-cave desk in the cave area, with your ID. They are not sold in advance elsewhere.
Your first stop is the Digital Exhibition Center, 8899 Yangguan East Road, Dunhuang. The cave area has no ticket office and no visitor parking. A pin dropped on the caves will not get you in.
Arrive at least 30 minutes before your time slot. Peak season, 1 April–30 November, is open 8:00–18:00, with ticket checks stopping at 16:10. Off season, 1 December–31 March, is open 9:00–17:00, with ticket checks stopping at 15:10. If you are early, wait in the waiting area. At the ticket window, your passport is checked and you receive the paper Mogao ticket slip. It is valid for that visit on that day. It is checked at the Digital Exhibition Center and again in the cave area.
On a regular ticket, enter at Hall 1, watch the two films, take the shuttle to the caves, visit eight caves with the official guide, and take the shuttle back. Allow half a day. The guide and the shuttle are inside the CNY 238. The site does not add a separate guide fee or a private-car fee.
Inside the caves. No photos, no video, and no touching of the murals or painted statues. Suitcases, bags of 20 inches or larger, pets, and drones stay out of the cave area. Large bags can be left at the Digital Exhibition Center. Heavy rain or a heavy dust storm closes the caves. A reserved ticket that has not been checked in is refunded in full. Before the reserved time, the order can be changed once, free, in the same channel. After the paper slip is issued, or after the ticket is scanned, it cannot be changed.
If the regular tickets are gone. Check the WeChat account for seats released by cancellations. On busy days, look again the night before and on the morning of the visit. If the Academy has opened emergency mode, call first, confirm that a passport can be checked, and only then buy the CNY 100 ticket. Xiqianfodong, the Yulin Caves in Guazhou, Mingsha Mountain, and the Dunhuang Museum are different sites. They do not replace a Mogao ticket. The information line is 4008-333-715, staffed 8:30–16:30. It answers questions. It does not take ticket bookings.
Mingsha Mountain and Yueyaquan are a separate ticket
This is not included in the Mogao ticket. Book it under your passport name on the official WeChat account “鸣沙山月牙泉”. The full-price ticket published for 2026 is CNY 110. The winter-spring half-price offer, 1 December 2025 through 31 March 2026, has ended. Opening hours change by month. Use the notice for the week you are there. On ordinary days the ticket allows re-entry within three days. A major event can suspend that, so read the notice. Camel rides, sand gaiters, and the sightseeing bus are extra.
Before you leave home
Confirm the visa or the visa-free rule. That is an L visa, a residence permit, or unilateral visa-free entry for your passport. The 240-hour transit waiver does not cover Xinjiang or Gansu and cannot be used for this route.
Stay in a hotel that can register foreign guests. Some border-permit offices ask to see that registration slip.
Keep your passport with you. The same original is used for entry, hotel check-in, highway checks, the Mogao ticket window, and the border permit.
Call 12367 before you add Baihaba, the Bayanbulak section of the Duku Highway, or any place you are unsure is inside a border zone.
Set a Mogao reminder for 30 days before your visit, and book the regular ticket in the WeChat account that day. If your date is not on sale yet, book the earliest date the account is offering, and check again later for cancelled seats.
How to order the route
Without a border permit: Urumqi, then Turpan, then Kashgar city, then Dunhuang. Enter on an L visa or unilateral visa-free entry. Book the Mogao regular ticket in the official WeChat account before you travel.
With the Pamirs added: stay an extra day in Kashgar. Apply at the exit-entry office in the morning. A complete file is issued the same day. If the office orders a further check, the drive south has to move later. Go to Karakul Lake and Muztagh Ata only after the permit is on your phone.
Sources
National Immigration Administration, announcement and service guide for the electronic border-area permit, effective 15 April 2026. National Immigration Administration, visa-free transit policy: Xinjiang and Gansu are outside the 240-hour stay area. Dunhuang Academy, 2026 Mogao Caves opening notice, 30 March 2026, the Academy ticket page, and the 18 July 2026 statement on ticket sales. The exact border-zone map is whatever the local public security bureau is using at the time. If the Mogao opening plan changes, the Dunhuang Academy’s latest notice applies.