This episode sees the expedition crossing first the Yellow River, with its goat-skin rafts and giant waterwheels, and entering the Gobi desert along the He-xi corridor, where it visits some of the main citadels along the route, including Wu-wei and Zhang-ye, where Marco Polo spent a year, and described the Nye-pan Parinibbana Buddha statue.
They also visit the Bing-li-si Buddhist temple, which is now, thanks to an hydro-electric dam, surrounded by an artificial lake most of the year, and is mainly inaccessible. There are over 180 cave temples in the complex and a giant 27 metre Buddha statue.
Later the team climbs around 3,000 metres to see the Su-nan Yu-gu Autonomous Region, which is where the Yugurs still live a nomadic life, they are mainly Buddhists following the Tibetan tradition. The final stop for this episode is at the Jia-yu-guan citadel.
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