Bingling Temple Grottoes, Gansu, China

5Gary, Australia 5:00 PM Dec 28, 2020

Beauty in Isolation
This is an amazing cultural heritage site consisting of over 100 grottos with Buddhist murals and sculptures which extend from the Western Qin (420AD) to the Qing (1800) dynasties. Generalists can appreciate the art and the landscape while specialists of art and history can study the progression of styles through the millennium. I flew from Guangzhou to Lanzhou and hired a private driver through a national Chinese tourist company to ensure a driver with local knowledge and a tourist licence, and insurance. I avoided the boat trip on the reservoir by being driven directly to the site along the new highway completed October 2020. I went in December 2020. It was cold and I knew not all caves would be open but I wanted to avoid the crowds. I shared the site for 2.5 hours with only four other people. Please bring your own water and snacks, passport and Health clearance on your mobile phone if visiting in 2021. Also bring down jacket, gloves, scarf and beanie at a minimum for the minus 10 degrees centigrade temperatures from Nov to Jan. There are clean, Western-style toilets here. I was awestruck by the 30-metre Maitreya (Future) Buddha carved into the northern wall of the canyon and the many smaller sculptures of Buddhas and acolytes. The morning winter scenery along the drive, and at the site was breathtaking. The driver stopped at a town on the return journey to have the iconic Beef noodles. Ask for Niu Rou Mien. The journey is 3 hours each way by car so an early start is recommended (eg. 7am). The cost of 1500 RMB for the driver was well worth it (factor in not having to pay for the expensive boat ride). Entry fee I think is c. 80 RMB, waived for me as I am over 60. Be well prepared and don't miss this wonderful experience.

4EMD100 5:00 PM Sep 5, 2016

If you are in Lanzhou, worth the day trip
I thought the grottoes were lovely and well worth the trip - as an independent traveller I was put off by the comments about how hard it is to get there but found it easier than I had thought to make it in the end. The grottoes and statues are old and carved into cliff faces (in fact I think most of them were cut out of the rock and moved up the cliff face by 10/15m when they flooded the area to create the reservoir) they are also surrounded by beautiful hills, while the reservoir itself, although polluted, is picturesque too. The trip was even more special as there were hardly any other visitors so it felt very peaceful (it was a slightly rainy Monday). The ticket was RMB50 and seemed to include an audioguide in English. The big visitor centre mentioned below is now open, which makes buying tickets really easy - it was RMB125 p/p for a 3.5 hour visit by boat (50 mins there, 1.5 hrs to look around and 50 mins back, excluding entrance to the temple) - the small boats needed 9 people to go and so we waited for enough people to turn up and then we went. I think on busier days there are also bigger boats. The temple was totally empty when I arrived but is apparently very busy at weekends - it now seems to be 'A Tourist Attraction' so expect the masses during busy seasons and times. I thought it would be helpful to set out details of how I got there with public transport (I speak basic Chinese which helped with this as no one spoke English, if you don't speak any make sure you have helpful phrases written down). - The buses to Liujiaxiu go from the West Bus Station (XiZhan) - you can buy a ticket there before boarding the bus (RMB21.5, and they needed to see a passport) - I am not sure how frequent the buses are, I arrived at 8.05 and this one left at 8.45, not sure if there is a schedule or it just waits to fill up. The bus took about 2/2.5 hours to get there - the route goes through some very pretty scenery once you are out of the city and into the hills. - The bus terminates in Liujiaxiu - but just before that it stopped at the reservoir dam where the boat docks are, so it may be worth asking the bus driver if he can stop there. If not the taxi from the bus terminus to the visitor centre and boat dock is about 5RMB. - Once at the dam you will see a big visitor centre, as mentioned above, and it was RMB125 for a ticket on a boat and they can add independent travellers together to make a boat load - I suspect you can still hire a boat for yourself but I am not sure how much this would be as the signs were all in Chinese. - The return buses go from the same road that they have drop off at, at the top of the town, and they are easily identifiable with the 'Lanzhou-Liujiaxia' signs on them (in characters I'm afraid, but Lanzhou (兰州) is at least easy to spot). The journey cost RMB19 and a number of people confirmed that the last bus goes at 18.30. Again, it seemed to just wait until it had filled up before it went.