Explore Hanging Temple and Yungang Grottoes from Taiyuan

The Hanging Temple, also Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple is a temple built into a cliff near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. Along with the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it is the only existing temple with the combination of three Chinese traditional religions: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams fitted into holes chiseled into the cliffs.

Bounded on three sides by mountains, Taiyuan is the capital of Shanxi Province and one of the most important energy and industrial bases in China. Comparing Taiyuan with any ancient capital in China, it is not inferior. With a history of more than 2,500 years, Taiyuan once was an important political, military, economic, and cultural center in ancient North China. It boasts abundant tourism resources varying from famous mountains to grottoes, temples, lakes, caves, ancient buildings and relics. Among them, the statues of the maid of the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279) in the Jinci Temple show different postures vividly; the grottoes and statues of the Sui and Tang Dynasties (581 - 907) in the Tianlong Mountain and the two pagodas standing at Yongyou Temple have always attracted visitors' attention. In the evening, you can go to Liu Alley which has the largest night market in northern China, to taste local delicacies and buy special products. It is also very convenient to transfer to other hot Shanxi tourism spots from Taiyuan such as Mount Wutai, Yungang Grottoes, Mt. Taihang, Ancient City of Pingyao and Hukou Waterfalls.

The Yungang Grottoes, formerly the Wuzhoushan Grottoes, are ancient Chinese Buddhist temple grottoes near the city of Datong in the province of Shanxi. They are excellent examples of rock-cut architecture and one of the three most famous ancient Buddhist sculptural sites of China. The others are Longmen and Mogao. The site is located about 16 km west of the city of Datong, in the valley of the Shi Li river at the base of the Wuzhou Shan mountains. They are an outstanding example of the Chinese stone carvings from the 5th and 6th centuries. There are 53 major caves, along with 51,000 niches housing the same number of Buddha statues. Additionally, there are around 1,100 minor caves. A Ming Dynasty-era fort is still located on top of the cliff housing the Yungang Grottoes. The grottoes were excavated in the south face of a sandstone cliff about 2600 feet long and 30 to 60 feet high. In 2001, the Yungang Grottoes were made a UNESCO World Heritage Site.