Hengshan Hanging Temple (Xuankong si)

You will be picked up by your private tour guide at 8:00 am in your hotel in Datong and transferred to the Hanging Temple, about 1.5hours’ driving. You will visit the temple for about 1.5hours. In summer time during the peak season (from July to August), it may takes a longer time and early start, since the Hanging Temple really is a hot spot. We will arrange you the lunch in the local restaurant in Hunyuang County. After lunch you will be transferred to Yungang Caves The stone carving was done in three separate stages. In the first stage, the five caves were carved under Monk Tanyao’s conduction, which are called Tanyao Five Caves now. Since it is the beginning of the stone carving, the carving style have been greatly influenced by Indian and Western Asian art style, even by the Greek art style, the statues looks much different from the later ones.

Yungang Grottoes

In the second stage, the caves are renowned for the delicacy and details, which are the manifestation of the art style from the Northern Wei Dynasty. The caves sculpted in the later time are much smaller in sizes but the statues from this period are designed thinner but with fine appearances and handsome features, which is a reflection of Northern China’s art style as well as the beginning of figures’ design style called elegant skeleton and delicate features. Moreover, lots of caves are decorated with carvings of music instruments, flying Apsaras in dancing and statues performing Chinese ancient miscellaneous acrobatics, which is a reflection of social life and the Buddhist practicing trend at the Northern Wei Dynasty. and then visit there for about 3 hours. The scenic area of Yungang Caves has been renovated and enlarged, so it will take 40 to 50 minutes for walking in and out and you will spend 1.5 to 2 hours for visiting. If you want to leave more time for staying in the central visiting area you can take the electric car instead of walking, which will be 15yuan per person for the round trip. After that, you will be transferred to the place where the trip starts.