Friend, have you been to the city of Dunhuang in Xinjiang, mainland China? It's an important ancient town on the old silk road, with many famous sights and monuments, and many beautiful and vivid legends.

About 20 kilometers southwest of Dunhuang's famous Mogao Grottoes, there is a great stretch of desert. In the midst of the dunes lies a little half-moon shaped lake, 110 meters long and a few tens of meters broad, and so clear that you can see right to the bottom. Although this little lake nestles between the shifting dunes, the windborne sand always blows around it, never falling in, and its rippling surface is studded with aquatic plants. Why should this be?

The little lake and the dune beside it bear the intriguing names of Crescent Moon Spring and Weeping Dune. Where did Crescent Moon Spring and Weeping Dune come from? And how did they get their names?

Long, long ago, the old city of Dunhuang was called Shachuan Cheng ("Sand River City"), and in it lived a girl of angelic beauty named Crescent Moon. One day Crescent Moon went with her parents to burn incense in the temple, and there she met a young painter who was painting frescoes in the temple's grottoes. When their eyes met, a spark flashed between them which set their hearts on fire. This young painter was called Dune Boy.

From then on, every few days Crescent Moon would find some excuse to go to the temple so that she could see Dune Boy. Regretting only their lives before they had met, they talked endlessly in whispers, and their secret love blossomed.

At that time Crescent Moon's father was the city magistrate. When he learned the real reason for his daughter's visits to the temple, he flew into a rage and shut her up at home. Every day Dune Boy looked out for his sweetheart, but every day passed in disappointment. When he found out that Crescent Moon's father was behind her disappearance, he was so overcome with anger and hatred that he coughed up blood and fell gravely ill. One day, lying in his master's arms, Dune Boy said: "Master, I'm done for. After I die, please bury me where I can see Crescent Moon. I want to see Crescent Moon every day. . ." Thus the lovestruck Dune Boy left this world, in anger and sorrow.

In accordance with Dune Boy's dying wish, the old master painter buried him on a small sand dune beside the main road outside the city. To his astonishment, when he had just finished burying Dune Boy a fierce wind suddenly blew up, sending the sand swirling about him. When the wind died down, the painter saw that at the spot where he had buried Dune Boy, the wind had built up a tall dune with a crest as sharp as the point of a knife, and again and again he heard the sound "Oh, oh; oh, oh" coming from it, as if Dune Boy were weeping over his bitter life.

After Crescent Moon was shut up at home, she would neither eat nor drink and became as thin as a rake. Her anxious parents hurriedly devised a scheme: they told Crescent Moon that they agreed to her being married to Dune Boy, while secretly sending word to a different bridegroom whom they had arranged for their daughter, telling him to come and marry her immediately.

That day, hearing the merry sound of the firecrackers and suona trumpets coming closer and closer, Crescent Moon happily put on her new clothes, made up her beautiful face and mounted the bridal palanquin. But when the procession had just left the city walls, a gust of wind carried the sound of weeping--"Oh, oh; oh, oh"--to her ears. The voice seemed familiar, but when Crescent Moon listened harder she heard nothing. She thought this was very curious, and suddenly she overheard the palanquin bearers chatting: "Oh, the strangest things happen, isn't that dune there weeping?" "How can a dune weep? It's the poor painter who's buried there that's weeping." "They say his name was Dune Boy." When Crescent Moon heard this she hurriedly looked outside, and saw that the bridegroom was not Dune Boy, and that she had been tricked. At that moment the sound of weeping again drifted across from the dune, and she recognized her lover's voice. Giving a loud cry of "Dune Boy," Crescent Moon fell into a faint inside the palanquin. The bearers heard her cry, turned round to look, and shouted in surprise, "The bride's fainted!"

Their shouts awoke Crescent Moon and she climbed down from the palanquin, her two eyes fixed on the tall dune. Gazing at it she wept and wept, her tears cascading down to form a little stream which flowed to the foot of the dune, where it collected into a curving, crystal-clear lake. Then a fierce wind blew from the crest of the dune, whipping up a sandstorm which blackened the sky. The sand buried Crescent Moon along with the whole wedding procession. Only the little lake of tears was not buried, for the driven sand stopped at the water's edge. The little lake was like a crescent moon reflecting the image of the dune. Countless years have passed since that day, but the lake has never dried up. It still holds the dune close in its embrace. And the dune? It still stands tall like a warrior by the side of the little lake, and often calls out "Oh, oh; oh, oh." Is it whispering secret words to the lake? Or telling the world their story?

[Picture Caption]

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Crescent Moon Spring outside the old city of Dunhuang. (photo by lu Jing song)

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The oasis below Weeping Dune. (photo by Lu Jingsong)

The oasis below Weeping Dune. （photo by Lu Jingsong）