Dunhuang Brother Ge Inn

I booked this farm house via booking.com for a dormitory bed of RMB30. There was a long string of hostels and guesthouses in this Yueya Spring Village at Dunhuang and I was searching for the farmhouse until I saw the directional signboard. Half way through I lost my direction but it seems that the farmhouse's name is well known in the village. You just quote the name of the farmhouse and the villagers I met will understand which farmhouse you are referring to and pointed towards the direction. It is quite easy to locate the farmhouse unlike my experience at Lanzhou when no one even knew of the name of the hostel I was searching. This farm house is located just beside the Mingsha Shan (the famous Echoing Sand Mountain of Dunhuang). After you exited from Mingsha Shan, you can access to the farmhouse from the first concrete lane on your left. It is directly opposite the public shuttle bus terminal where you can take the public bus to the downturn for RMB2. You walked till the end of the concrete lane and turned left and the farmhouse is just 10 meters from this lane. There is a big signboard at the end of the lane that showed you the location of the various hostels and guesthouse in the village. This is the first time I came to stay at a farmhouse. But don't expect to see any farm animals on this farm house. It is called a farmhouse probably because it is located in the middle of a farm village. The security at this village must be unusually good as the owner of the farmhouse did not lock his main door and I was able to leave the farmhouse at any time without having to call the owner to unlock the door. When I entered the farmhouse, the female owner was engrossed in her room cleaning and was in a happy mood singing a song to her self and she did not even hear my footsteps. She was not surprised when I suddenly appeared in front of her. I did not see any other person in the farmhouse at that moment but she was very friendly and welcoming. The female owner stopped her work, invited me for a tea at the lobby and offered me a plate of grapes. Among the guesthouses I had stayed, this was the first time I met such a welcoming owner. She arranged a bed for me to stay in a 4-bed room. I was all alone and I like the cleanliness of this room and the sanitary facility was tip-top with American seating toilet bowl and hot bath shower system. The bathroom and toilet are also within the room itself and you need not go out of the room to bath or use the toilet. Compared with the other youth hostel I stayed at downtown Dunhuang, this farmhouse is ten times better in terms of sanitary facilities. There is also a blower and air conditioner in the room. The owner switched it on to raise the temperature as night set in. The female farm owner was caring and informed me that there are hot boiled water at the common lobby and I can come and take my rest at the lobby. I did not heed her advice and went to bed early after an exhausting and tiring half day exploration at the Echoing Sand Mountain and the following day early morning I had to catch the train to Xian. I only stayed at the farmhouse for a night. If my trip is longer, I would have stayed more nights over here and slowly enjoyed my exploration of the neighborhood and the Echoing Sound Mountain. The female owner is also lovely caring and I really appreciated her kindness. This appears to me a big difference between a farmhouse and a guesthouse or hostel.