Longmen Grottoes is a large collection of Buddhist carvings into caves and grottoes, in a kilometre-long series of cliffs above the Yi River. There are several thousand caves and grottoes here, with tens of thousands of carvings; everything from a 19-meter high Buddha statue, to minuscule figurines scarcely 10cm high. Most of the carvings date back to a period between 500-700 AD. Like many cave art sites, it’s been subjected to centuries of weathering, looting, and vandalism, so the overwhelming majority of the statues are damaged in some way - eroded, faded paint, faces smashed off, looted, and so on.

The highlight here is the main grotto, home to an enormous 19-metre high Buddha statue, flanked by a pair of boddhisatvas, kings, and fierce guardians. I loved the artistic style on display here, particularly the guardian on the northern wall, glaring furiously at anyone who dares enter. Small wonder it’s survived the centuries mostly intact.

Overall it’s a great example of carved religious art, though perhaps not quite as impressive as similar-ish sites in India like Ajanta, Ellora, and Elephanta caves.

While you’re there:

The site is on both sides of the river, and has been organised so that you walk north -> south on the western side, cross a bridge over the river, then proceed south -> north on the eastern side, before crossing back over the river to the initial entrance. The western side is by far the more impressive, featuring both the highest number of carvings, and the best quality carvings. Most local groups only do the western side, then return to the entrance either via boat, or an electric shuttle bus. We walked the whole circuit and appreciated the relative peace and quiet of the eastern side.

If the weather is warm, take a big hat and wear plenty of sunscreen - the site is very exposed during the day and there’s very little shade. We were there in August and it was a blistering 35 degrees.

Getting there:

We stayed in “nearby” Zhengzhou, and caught a high speed train to Luoyang Longmen in the morning. From there you can take bus 71 directly to the site. But given the number of persistent and semi-aggressive touts (the worst we’ve encountered so far in China!), we opted instead to take the metro one stop to Balitang and catch one of the many buses from there. As with most public transit systems in China, it was cheap and reliable. If you can’t read Chinese, Apple Maps is the best way of navigating around (including on PT), though it only shows very limited info when outside of China.