National Day Travel Destination Recommendation | Datong, Shanxi - Yungang Grottoes.

| Datong, Shanxi - Yungang Grottoes. 📍Address: South foot of Wuzhou Mountain, north bank of Wuzhou River, Datong City, Shanxi Province 🏝️Reservation Guide: ⏰Opening Hours: 9:00-17:00 (ticket sales stop at 16:30) 🚎The scenic area has a battery car back and forth for CNY 15, one way for CNY 10 🚢Boat for CNY 20 per person 🚗Transportation Guide: Take bus No. 3 or No. 12 to Yungang Grottoes Station 💗: 1️⃣One of the four major grottoes in China; 2️⃣World Cultural Heritage ❗Tips: After 4 pm, you will enjoy a very smooth visit to the grottoes Yungang Grottoes, originally known as Lingyan Temple and Shifo Temple. Located at the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain, 17 kilometers west of Datong City, Shanxi Province, it is one of China's famous grottoes. The excavation of Yungang Grottoes began in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the third year of Huangshi of the Northern Wei Dynasty (398 AD), Emperor Tuoba Gui of the Northern Wei Dynasty moved the capital from Shengle to Pingcheng (now Datong City), and Wuzhou Mountain became the traffic hub between Shengle and Pingcheng. After Emperor Wencheng ascended the throne, he ordered the monk Tongtanyao to preside over the restoration of the Dharma. With the support of Emperor Wencheng, Tanyao chose the beautiful Wuzhou Mountain, "cut the mountain stone wall, opened five caves, each with a Buddha statue, the tallest is 70 feet, the next is 60 feet, the carving is magnificent, and it is crowned in the world." Most of the caves in Yungang were completed before the Northern Wei Dynasty moved to Luoyang, but the statue project continued until the Zhengguang period of the Northern Wei Dynasty (520-525 AD), and the excavation lasted for about 150 years, spanning the Northern Wei, Eastern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Qi, Sui, and Tang dynasties. The grottoes are excavated along the mountain, with a grand scale and majestic momentum, stretching about 1 kilometer from east to west. There are currently 45 main grottoes and 209 subsidiary grottoes, with a carved area of over 18,000 square meters. The largest statue is 17 meters high and the smallest is 2 centimeters. There are more than 1,100 Buddha niches and more than 59,000 large and small statues. The Yungang Grottoes have a history of 1,500 years. It is the first royal-style Buddhist art treasure house carved by a nation in a dynasty after the eastward spread of Buddhist art in China. It is a historical monument of the integration of Chinese and Western cultures in the 5th century AD.