We (a small tour group) visited the Dazu Rock Carvings in late 1984... It was not a spot frequented by tourists, but since the Chinese Communist travel agency had pulled our group out of Beijing a day early, they made up for it by busing us from Chongquing 3 hours by bus to the hamlet of Dazu. It was the highlight of our 3 week trip... when I visited there were no railings to obscure the view, no benches & no other tourists. It's sad to see from these recent photos that the bas-reliefs have been painted recently. What we saw in 1984, were beautiful, detailed Confucian, Taoist & Buddhist carvings, which had traces of paint (very pale colors) that had faded over the centuries. I'm happy that railings will protect the carvings from being touched (they certainly need this in Angkor Wat), but it's sad that someone decided to paint these carvings, especially since no attempt seems to have been made to approximate the original colors.

With the giant earthquake in the Chongquing province, I wonder was has happened to these amazing carvings. If they remain intact & you are planning a visit to Sichuan, I would encourage you to take the time to visit the Dazu carvings.

The carvings are in a chasm, an open grotto. They were designed by a Buddhist monk, so cleverly that the carvings are protected from the rains -- drainage pipes were cleverly included, so that mouths are sometimes the conduits to expel the water.