The Bingling Temple Grottoes

The Bingling Temple Grottoes also called Bingling Temple Caves or Thousand Buddha Caves, located in Xiaojishi Mountain, 35 kilometers southwest to Yongjing County, Lanzhou City. It built in 420 in Western Qin Dynasty (385-400), carved into the cliffs of a 60 meters high gorge. It famous for murals and skilled stone carvings. Today, the number of existence caves are only 183,  stone statues are 694 , clay statues are 82 and about 900 square meters frescos, stretching 200 meters along west bank of Temple Channel on the  cliff. During the construction of Liujiaxia Reservoir in 1967, a 200-meter-long and 20-meter-high dam was built in front of the temple. Since then, the Bingling Temple Grottoes can be only reached by boat. The best time to visit here is from July to November when the weather is most delightful. It usually takes one day to finish the whole trip.