The trip out from Lanzhou to the Buddhist caves of
Bingling Si is one of the best excursions
you can make in all of Gansu Province - enough in
itself to merit a stay in Lanzhou. Not only does
it offer a glimpse of the spectacular
Buddhist
cave art that filtered through to this region
along the Silk Road, but it's a powerful
introduction to the
Yellow River .
The caves are carved into a canyon beside the Liujiaxia
Reservoir on the Yellow River, and can be
reached only by boat at certain times of the year
(see "practicalities"). The most
convenient way to see the caves is on a pre-booked
one-day trip from Lanzhou - the whole trip
takes up to twelve hours, which includes less than
two hours at the caves, but the scenery en route
makes it all worthwhile.
From Lanzhou, the first stage of the expedition
is a two-hour bus ride through impressively
fertile loess fields to the massive Liujiaxia
Hydro-Electric Dam a spectacular sight poised
above the reservoir and surrounded by colourful
rocky mountains. At the dam you board a waiting
ferry, which takes three hours to reach the caves.
From the ferry, the views are excellent: of
fishermen busy at work, and peasants cultivating
wheat, sunflowers and rice on the dark, steep
banks. During the trip, the ferry enters a tall,
hung gorge , where the river froths and
churns; you'll see sections of the bank being
whipped away into the waters. It's said that the
Yellow River carries some 35 kilos of silt in
every cubic metre of water - hence its constant
murkiness and its name.
The ferry docks just below the Bingling Si
Caves. Cut into sheer cliff, amid stunning scenery
above a tributary of the river, the caves number
183 in all. They are among the earliest
significant Buddhist monuments in China - started
in the Western Jin and subsequently extended by
the Northern Wei, the Tang, Song and Ming. Since
they were spared through inaccessibility from the
attentions of foreign devils in the nineteenth
century and the Red Guards in the twentieth, most
of the cave sculpture is in good condition, and
some impressive restoration work is in progress on
the wall paintings. The centrepiece sculpture,
approached along a dizzying network of stairs and
ramps, is a huge 27-metre seated Buddha, probably
carved under the Tang. The art work at Bingling Si
reached its peak under the Song and Ming
dynasties, and though the wall paintings of this
period have been virtually washed away, there
remain a considerable number of small and
exquisite carvings.
Unfortunately, you'll have less than two hours
before the boat leaves - only enough time for a
cursory look. If you want a detailed guided tour,
encompassing all the caves, ask about a private
trip at one of the Lanzhou travel services.
Most travel services in Lanzhou can arrange
trips
to the caves (see Lanzhou's
"Listings"), though if you are on your
own you may have to hunt around to find a
pre-existing group which you can tag on to. For
a maximum car-load of three passengers, an
all-inclusive price (car, boat, entry ticket and
insurance) usually comes to „400-500; the Gansu
International Hope Travel Agency in the
Huaiyi
Hotel work out their rates at „200 per
person. There may also be larger (and therefore
cheaper) group tours operating out of the
Shengli
Hotel - enquire here for details. Before
booking any tour, take heed of the following:
the water in the reservoir is only high enough
to permit
access between June and
October. Some years, however, the caves remain
out of bounds through most of the summer as
well, and some tour operators have been known to
take people all the way to the reservoir before
"discovering" that the water level is
too low - no fee refundable. Make sure your
travel service gives you information about the
situation at the reservoir before you book.
Alternatively, you could consider travelling
independently to the reservoir on a public
bus. Both from the West bus station and from a
special stop outside the Shengli Hotel,
there are buses to Yongjing , which pass
the ferry departure point (if you fail to get
off at the right place, you'll have to walk back
thirty minutes from the bus terminus). From the
ferry departure point you can usually charter
your own motorboat to the caves, which will cost
around „500; on the way back you may end up
staying the night in Yongjing, if the last
public bus back to Lanzhou (around 5pm) leaves
without you.
