You may discern in the attached photo, taken outside the Longmen Grottoes, that the majority of the people are wearing blue “Mao suits” – this photo was taken on my first visit to China in May 1978. It is perhaps worth recalling the historical background of the time. In late 1976 Mao Tse-Tung had died and the hard line communist “Gang of Four” had been arrested by Hua Kuo Feng who was still prime minister at the time of our visit. On the other hand Deng Shao-peng was still a “non-person” after proposing supposedly “rightist” views in 1975 (but would re-emerge in the next few months, pay a visit to the USA in Jan 1979 and ultimately replace Hua’s “Soviet planning” approach with more pragmatic economics). China was “on the cusp” as it tentatively moved towards opening up – and the rest as they say “Is History”!

It was fascinating to visit China at this pivotal time – all the outward shows of strict Communist rule were still in place – the Mao badges, the collective farms, the neighbourhood committees. Yet among the people we met one sensed a strong desire to change. As part of the “opening up” small groups of tourists were “invited” (but paying!) as “Foreign Friends”. This gave us a status which unfortunately was soon to disappear in China’s dealings with foreign tourists! We were asked what we wanted to see and it was arranged. So schools, universities, hospitals, factories, mines, collective farms and workers flats were all made available (to some degree – we were not naive!). Every visit was preceded and followed by a meeting where we all sat in those enormous Chinese upholstered armchairs, supped green tea and asked questions. (Which, in retrospect, were answered in remarkably open fashion)

The same routine occurred at sightseeing locations and my diary notes such meetings at Longmen. Foreigners were still incredibly rare – in some towns if you stood still in the street 100s of people would just gather round and look at you. On one occasion I had a hair cut in a barbers and the shop was besieged by onlookers! My diary notes that children at Longmen ran away when looked at by us but conversely that a seller of ice lollies insisted on giving me one as an act of friendship. Another note from the introduction was that “Imperialists cooperating with feudalist officials stole a great number of statues from Longmen” – the language of a different era! (though with some justification – China still regards the artefacts in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC as “stolen”!)

The caves are manmade and run alongside a riverside terrace with an external row of giant statues (photo). Inside the caves are buddha/bodhisattva/apsara carvings of all sizes from around 6th/7th centuries – one cave contains an enormous one whose ears alone are 6ft high – another has (reportedly) 10000 tiny carvings covering the walls, blackened shiny over time by fires and the hands of pilgrims.

The situation of the caves near Loyang means that they are convenient for anyone travelling to/from Xian overland. If you want to take in only 1 of the WHS “Buddhist carving” caves that probably makes this one the most preferable. Yungang is situated near “dusty Datong” and Mogao in far away Dunhuang. Perhaps the interiors of Yungang are more impressive but no doubt some expert in oriental art will disagree!