Page 10 - 15 Day China Sample

DAY 07 DUNHUANG Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch Enjoy a full-day of exploring. Visit the Mogao Grottoes and the Dunhuang Museum. The Mogao Caves were designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1987. The caves are the largest and richest ancient art treasure in the world. They are located in a rare mountain gully running from south to north, sandwiched by Minsha Mountain in the west and Sanwei Mountain in the east. The Dangguan River flows through it, nurturing a rare piece of oasis full of vitality. There are numerous caves carved out of the steep cliffs of the Minsha Mountain. It is a 1,000 year old ancient art gallery still living today. Each cave and each mural has its own story. The earliest cave was carved 1630 years ago. During the first year of the reign of the King Taihe of Jin (366 AD), a Buddhist monk named Le Zun came into the mountain gallery one evening and saw thousands of shafts of light shedding upon the Sanwei Mountain like Buddhas in their thousands. Monk Le Zun threw himself to the ground, determined to carve a cave on the Sanwei Mountain cliff in the worship of the Buddhas. Several years later, Fa Liang, another monk who was from the east, came to dig the second cave. Thereafter people came in flocks to carve caves to express their belief in the Buddhas. The construction of the Mogao Grottoes spanned more than a thousand years ranging from the Early Qin, Northern Wei, Western Wei, Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang, Five Dynasties, Song, Xixia and Yuan. But it was the Tang Dynasty that really built a number of caves. During this period more than one thousand caves were carved. The Great Wall, the Forbidden City and the Terra cotta warriors of the Qin are all remarkable. However, they were all built in a given dynasty. The Mogao Grottoes as a quintessence of art, history and culture, were built and developed over 11 dynasties over more than 1,000 years.