You’ll receive a welcome call from your guide via hotel at the night before your tour day, he/she will double confirm the pick-up time for the next day’s trip with you. If you are not available at that moment, the tour guide will leave a message for you.

Just in case that if you don’t receive our emails or phone calls, please call our 24-hour hotline at +86-18807734970 or add WeChat ID: trippest666 and we will put things right.

Your guide will be waiting for you in your hotel lobby which is centrally located in Datong City at 8:30AM holding a sign with your name on it. Then brings you to our first stop–the Yungang Grottoes. On the way, hearing intriguing facts about this historical wonder from your guide.

The driver helps you get into the car

Good to Know:

• The hotel pick-up and drop-off area should be within Datong city center. For further distance there might be an extra cost for the transfer which you’ll be notified by your travel advisor.
• Datong is about 150miles due west of Beijing, takes 2.5 hours by high-speed railway. Or after visiting Pingyao Ancient Town, Datong is a best place to go, about 3-hour high-speed railway to get there.

On arrival, tour the grottoes that spread just over half a mile (1 kilometer) from east to west. It’s construction spanned 40 years in the 5th century.

Entrance of Yungang Grottoes

45 grottoes remained out of the original 53, and overall they contain 250 niches and 51,000 Buddhist statues with murals and frescoes which are all masterpiece of ancient Chinese carving art and embodiment of ancient people’s religious faith.

Huge Buddhist statue

Many niches on the Wall

Caves 5 and 6 in the middle part of the Yungang Grottoes are the most impressive. There is a 17-meter-tall Buddhist statue which is the largest in the Yungang Grottoes, and many precious sculptures telling the story of Sakyamuni.

The largest statue

Buddhist sculptures

Buddha statues and murals

Absorbing Indian Gandhara Buddhist art, the sculptures here developed traditional Chinese art melded with social features of the time. The style of the architecture highlights the features of Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534).

Buddhist architecture

Architecture style of Northern Wei Dynasty

Good to Know:

• The Yungang Caves area is very large. Although you can take a battery car from the entrance to the site, you also need to walk a lot. Wearing a pair of comfortable shoes is recommended.
• Please be prepared to climb steps. All the steps are fenced safely and you can ascend them easily. Your experienced guide will take good care of you.

Admire the lush scenery around the caves, and afterward, head to a local restaurant for a lunch of popular regional dishes.

Please let us know your food preferences, such as a vegetarian diet, gluten-free food, etc. so that we can make preparations in advance.

Great lunch time

Duly refreshed, we will transfer 1.5 hour to the south of Datong to the Hanging Monastery which was built 1,500 years ago. This unique monastery hangs 50 meters above the ground on the cliff side of Mount Heng (Heng Shan), one of China’s Five Sacred Taoist Mountains.

Temple hanging on the cliff

Topped by ornate upswept roofs, this monastery is supported by crossbeams driven into the cliff, and consists of 40 rooms connected by corridors and bridges, and filled with about 80 bronze, iron, and clay statues. Drink in the stunning views from the cliff face, and see the rock overhang above that shelters the temples from the worst of the elements.

Watch out on the passage

Customer in the monastery

Good to Know:

• The Hanging Monastery is occasionally closed for renovation or repairs. If this is the case on your tour, you will not be able to climb up to the rooms, and your visit will involve viewing the buildings from the ground.

After admiring the monastery, drive back Datong city where your tour ends with a hotel drop-off.

Yungang Grottoes