Bingling Temple Tour around Lanzhou

Bingling Temple was originally called 'Tangshu Temple', which means 'ghost cave' in Qiang language. It was later known as Longxing Temple and Lingyan Temple. After the Ming Yongle years, it was named 'Bingling Temple' or 'Bingling Temple' based on the transliteration of the Tibetan word for 'one hundred thousand Buddhas'. The grottoes are divided into three parts: the upper temple, the cave valley, and the lower temple, distributed on the red sandstone on both sides of the Dasi Valley. The caves are stacked layer upon layer, with winding paths spiraling upwards. Bingling Temple Grottoes were founded during the Sixteen Kingdoms period and have a history of more than 1,600 years. They are a national key cultural relics protection unit. On June 22, 2014, at the 38th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee held in Doha, Qatar, the Bingling Temple Grottoes were successfully inscribed on the 'World Heritage List' as part of the 'Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor', a joint application by China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The grottoes mainly consist of three parts: the lower temple area, the upper temple area, and the cave valley area. There are currently 216 existing niches, more than 800 statues of various types, over 1,000 square meters of murals in both Tibetan and Han styles, 56 stupas, and 438 collections. Inside the cave, there is an ink inscription from the first year of the Western Qin Dynasty's Jianhong era (i.e., 420 AD), which is the earliest dated inscription for image-making in China to date, providing an important benchmark for the chronological division of early grottoes.