The Yungang Grottos of Shanxi Province is to be inspected and evaluated by the World Heritage Committee on March 1, and relevant editing work of literary documents, photographs, slides, and videotapes required for the application has been brought to finish.

As one of the largest grottos in ancient China, the Yungang Grottos currently consist of 252 caves of different sizes with some 51,000-odd stone sculptures enshrined there, covering an area of over 18,000 square meters. Renowned for its imposing and colorful sculptures it is the grottos of a huge scale that appeared the earliest in regions east of Xinjiang.

The Yungang Grottos was built 1500 years ago and listed by the State Council as the first batch of key cultural relics to be under the national protection, according to Li Zhiguo, head of the Yungang research institute. As early as 1986 China made some preparations for it to be accepted on the World Heritage List but was held back due to the poor environment in its surrounding areas, and so it was dropped out from the final list of application.

But now the environment has been greatly improved. Putting in 200 million yuan, the government has diverted the national highway that used to run in front of it to elsewhere and instead opened up a special road for tourists to approach the Yungang Grottos for visit.

(People’s Daily 02/26/2001)