Datong | Yungang Grottoes World Heritage Site

Yungang Grottoes is located on the southern foot of Wuzhou Mountain in the western suburbs of Datong, Shanxi. It is one of the four major grottoes in China, along with the Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, and the Maijishan Grottoes in Tianshui. It is the pinnacle of Chinese Buddhist art and a historical monument to cultural exchanges between China and the West during the Northern Wei Dynasty. The Northern Wei geographer Li Daoyuan praised it in his book "Commentary on the Water Classic": "Carving stones and opening mountains, building according to the rocks, the true form is huge and magnificent, rare in the world..." Yungang Grottoes has 254 caves and niches, with more than 59,000 statues, and a history of more than 1,500 years. Its large scale, damaged cave appearance, and the various Buddha statues, some solemn and dignified, some kind and benevolent, all reveal a captivating, mysterious, and charming smile, like a lingering sound that cannot be forgotten, reminiscent of the Angkor Wat in Cambodia, with its unique and incomplete beauty, and the unforgettable "Khmer smile"... The writer Bing Xin once described Yungang Grottoes like this: "Countless incarnations, carved all over the mountains, with supernatural craftsmanship, shocking the mind. One Buddha, one world, one wing, one hoof, one flower, one leaf, each with precision and rigor, beyond words and paintings. Looking back, there is infinite nostalgia, looking forward, there is boundless desire. Eyes cannot focus, feet cannot stop, like a thief suddenly entering a treasure house, losing one's mind, wisdom taken away, recalling afterwards, like a dream entering a heavenly palace, knowing in the heart but unable to speak, only then realizing the uselessness of words!" Yungang Grottoes, this treasure of the world, leaves one speechless, making writers feel that words are useless, how wonderful it is...