Golden-haired and green-eyed experts are often seen working together with their yellow-skinned peers in the somber caves at the Mogao. Experts from United State have been working here with their Chinese counterparts for a dozen of years to protect the cultural heritages at Dunhuang.

As a joint project between the Research Institute of Dunhuang and Getty Conservation Institue of US, the projects focusing on protecion of frescos in 85 caves has already entered its 5h stage. 15 years' hard work has made outstanding achievements in fields like fresco color monitoring, prevention of damages and repair of frescos. Being a comprehensive project, it also conducts research regarding cave environment monitoring, wind and sand proof, reinforcement of caves, monitoring of crevices in caves and experiments of dust-proof nets.

To preserve the cultural heritages permanently, experts from China and US start to shoot digital images of the frescos and produce virtual tour of the caves. This high-tech project is co-sponsored by the experts from the Dunhuang Research Institute, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Northwest University of US. Since the beginning of the project in 1998, shooting of digital images for 22 caves and virtual tours for the 42 caves have been completed.

Source: People's Daily Online