The Longmen Grottoes are a huge area of Buddhist caves and statues carved into the hillsides of two opposing hills along the Yi River. Longmen means Dragon's Gate. There are more than 100.000 statues ranging from tiny (2.5cm) to huge (17m) in size. The site was built primarily during the Tang dynasty (600-900CE), but first carvings were done a bit before (493CE).

I came on a day trip from Xian. Honestly, I didn't expect much as the title is really not helping. But after I came and saw the scope of the area and the sheer abundance of carvings, I was very glad I came. This is a stellar site and should be included in a visit to Xian.

Getting There

Via fast rail you can easily travel to Xian and Zhengzhou, the next major cities. Xian is a must see for any reputable WHS traveller for the Terracotta Army.

The fast rail station in Luoyang is aptly named Luoyang Longmen and is located South of town (as so many other fast train stations in China). While included in the name, the Grottoes are yet even further to the South and you will have to get some transport (cab, bus).

If you plan to combine the Grottoes with a visit to the Shaolin Temple (Dengfeng), you should get a driver at the train station and negotiate a fixed price for the whole day. I paid 500 RMB I think. A driver (not taxi) contacted me when I exited the train station and it seemed pretty fair. We got along splendidly. PM me if you want his contact data. It would be good to have a local phone number.

Getting In and Around

The ticket office and the actual entry to the site are fairly far apart (>2km). They operate a shuttle bus to take you to the actual entry from the ticket office. You can also walk as I did. But it's really not a nice walk, so you should go with the bus. If you plan to walk, just follow the road along the river to the hills and then cross the river via the bridge.

The bulk of the Grottoes are on the west side of the river. This is where you start your visit. Visiting the grottoes involves some climbing stairs up and down as they are built fairly high into the hillside.

Under normal circumstances the tour is a circuit as there is a foot bridge at the end of the west side. When I visited (January 2020) the bridge was closed for repairs, so I would have had to backtrack to the main entry and jump on another shuttle bus to get to the East entry. I decided to skip on the visit and returned to where my driver was picking me up.

While You Are There

A visit to Longmen without going to the Shaolin temples around Dengfeng would be in vain. I managed to see both in a packed day trip from Xian. But the whole day felt rather too squeezed.

The Luoyang area (as so many others in China) holds plenty of sites, being a former capital city. The main site of the city is the White Horse Temple which is part of yet another Silk Road (T) nomination.