Apart from the three replica grottoes, 118 precious cultural relics from seven museums in western China, are also on display. Many exhibits are being shown in Shanghai for the first time, including a bronze statue named Galloping Horse Treading on a Flying Swallow from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).

The statue, unearthed in 1969 from the tomb of a military officer in Zhangye, also in Gansu, is one of the top national treasures in China. As part of the Gansu Provincial Museum's collection, it reflects the legend that a galloping horse can be so fast that it can actually fly higher than a swallow. It became the national official tourism logo in 1983.

The exhibition is also showing three-dimensional holographic images that enable visitors to view immovable sculptures from different locations, including an image of Buddha's nirvana, which features an 18-meter-long reclining Buddha from No 158 cave at Mogao.

Other key exhibits include a Buddhist thangka artwork featuring Milarepa, a Tibetan scholar, 10 original Dunhuang manuscripts, and a collection of other religious and secular documents discovered in the Mogao Caves in the early 20th century.

The exhibition, which runs through February next year, will also present more than 50 seminars and events about the culture, fashion, music and dance, literature and folk arts relating to Dunhuang.