Yungang Grottoes feature a blend of ancient Buddhist temple grottoes and statues

  Yungang Grottoes feature a blend of ancient Buddhist temple grottoes and statues, revealing excellent stone carvings of 5th to 6th centuries. Undeniably, Yungang Caves, as a famous lure, along with Hanging Temple, attract seas of people to rush to Datong, Shanxi Province.
  Over the past 1,500 years since their completion, Yungang Grottoes have been damaged by both war and natural disasters. After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government attached great importance to the preservation of the grottoes. A special Yungang Grottoes protection institution was set up in 1995, and in 1961, the State Council listed Yungang Grottoes as key cultural site under its protection. In 1965, the Datong municipal government issued and implemented the Programs for the Protection Scope and Safety of Yungang Grottoes. From 1973 to 1976, under the instruction of Premier Zhou Enlai, China injected a huge sum of money into the grottoes, rescuing many grottoes and caves that had been on the verge of collapse.

  In recent past ten or so years, the Datong municipal government has intensified its efforts to protect the Yungang Grottoes. Huge investment has been made to get rid of illegal construction and to intensify landscaping efforts at the site. In December 2001, the 25th meeting of UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Helsinki, Finland, passed a decision to list Yungang Grottoes on the World Cultural Heritage List.
  For visiting Yungang Caves, here you can immerse yourself in the surprises of supreme ancient stone carving art. For neighboring the local coal mines, although Yungang grottoes have been polluted by coals, you still can appreciate the beautiful Buddha temples and countless Buddhist statues very well. Remarkably in the cave 5, a colossal seating Buddhist statue with a height of over 17 meters is an astonishing lure among so many statues, you would definitely open your mouth and make Wow when staring at it.