Chinese and American experts have completed repair work on ancient mural paintings in a Mogao grotto in Dunhuang, northwest China's Gansu Province.

The joint repair work was launched in 1999 in the 85th grotto, one with a huge collection of valuable mural paintings. Plagued by dry weather, strong gales and sand storms from the surrounding desert and Gobi, some paintings were in bad shape and needed restoration.

The Chinese and US experts have worked together to tackle difficulties in Mogao grottoes protection, an official with the Dunhuang Academy told Xinhua. "The repair work has been a success and the experience they have acquired will prove worthy in other heritage preservation efforts worldwide, including many other grottoes and ancient sites along the Silk Road," he said without giving his name.

Experts will start renovating the painted sculptures in the 85th grotto next year, after scaffolds for the current repair work are removed.

In another development, Dunhuang Academy specialists have reinforced an 800-meter-long cliff which groups 248 grottoes and is known as the northern part of the Mogao Grottoes. The reinforcement project will also ease some tourist pressure on the southern part.

The Mogao Grottoes of Dunhuang are popularly known as the Thousand Buddha Caves spreading for about 1,600 meters along a hill, whose frescos, painted on the ceiling and walls of the caves, carry the best preserved troves of Buddhist art in the world.

The Mogao Grottoes consist of some 500 man-made caves that have survived some 1,600 years of volatile climate changes and other damages. They were carved out of the rocks, 25 km to the southeast of the 2,000-year-old Dunhuang town, once a vital caravan stop on the ancient Silk Road linking Central Asia with China.

(Xinhua News Agency December 2, 2005)