Longman Caves
Trip Start
Oct 01, 2007
1
13
54
Trip End
Dec 20, 2007
Zhengzhou, China
Thursday, October 18, 2007
After parking, our driver took us to a ticket both and bundled onto an electric buggy - the type you get on golf courses. This dropped us off outside the main entrance at the East gate. Once our tickets were purchased we ventured under the bridge onto a path that followed the meandering river. This is the place where Buddhist Monks, over the centuries had carved a hundred thousand Buddhas into the Lyme stone cliffs! A pretty spectacular achievement
Longman Caves
. Unfortunately there had been some uprisings over the decades and some idiot leader had order most of the Buddha heads to be carved off. However, the larger figures had mostly remained in tact or had been restored so there was still plenty to see. We had to climb steps that jutted out of the rock face to reach a lot of them. This is not for the faint hearted!We crossed a bridge to the West side of the river to explore the temple that was built on the cliff face. The steps were very steep but the views of the carved Buddhas on the opposite side were fantastic. Unfortunately we discovered something that they failed to mention in brochures and books we had read. The temple was actually built for some general for his 50th birthday. Apparently he invited all the officials who were against the "people's revolution" and held them prisoner there for two years. Not a bad prison cell but we had been mislead in to believing it was related to the Buddha carvings.
We back tracked to the Buddha caves on the west side of the river. These were by no means as impressive as the others and most were being renovated.
We continued on to visit a tomb - another mound of earth as predicted. However, the gardens surrounding it were beautiful! We both grabbed an ice cream and headed back along a bridge to the East gate.
Its definitely worth a visit if your in the area. We paid for a ticket that incorporated all the attractions. However, it is possible to get tickets just for the East side and buy tickets on the door for the other attractions. This might be better as its only the East side that is worth visiting on our opinions.
