Crescent Lake is the desert postcard made real: a moon-shaped spring that has survived for two thousand years in a hollow of the Mingsha “singing sand” dunes, with a pagoda on its shore and 100-metre walls of sand on every side. The dunes hum — hence the name — when wind or sliding bodies set the grains vibrating.
Climb the roped ladder-path up the big dune for sunset over the oasis, then run or sled back down the face. The camel trains are pure theatre and photograph better than they ride. Bring shoe covers or sacrifice your socks; the sand goes everywhere and always has.