Xumishan Grottoes

National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit; Northern Wei To Tang Cave Temples On The Silk Road · Guyuan, Ningxia

Buddhist caves cut into red sandstone hills north-west of Guyuan, on a branch of the Silk Road that carried traffic between Chang'an and the north-western frontier, and one of the great cave complexes that almost nobody outside China has heard of. Work began under the Northern Wei in the fifth century and continued through the Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui and Tang, leaving more than a hundred and thirty caves in eight groups scattered across the ridges and gullies. The figure everyone comes for is in cave five: a seated Maitreya of the Tang, about twenty metres high, carved into the open cliff face with the hall that once enclosed it long gone, so the Buddha now sits in the weather looking down the valley, its face extraordinarily calm and almost undamaged. Other caves keep Northern Wei carving of a completely different character - thin, elongated, archaic - and some retain painted plaster. Paths and stairways link the groups across the hillsides, and the walk between them is part of the pleasure.

Sanying Town, Yuanzhou District, Guyuan, Guyuan, Ningxia, China

Daily, with published hours in conflict - given as 8:30-18:00 with last entry 17:30 by one source and 7:00-19:00 by another, with no seasonal split found. No advance booking appears to be required. Paths between the cave groups ice over in winter.

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