Brief Introduction: The Mogao Grottos , commonly known as Thousand Buddha Caves in local, are located at eastern  foothills of the MIngsha Mountains, 25km sountheast of Dunhuang city. All of grottos which look like many honeycombs were built in the sandstone cliff, extending around 1700m from north to south. Construction of these grottos began in the 2^nd year of Jianyuan during the Former Qin Dynasty (366AD). There are 735 existing caves of various shapes from the Northern Liang, Northern Wei, Western Wei,Northern Zhou, Sui, Tang , Five Dynasties, Song, Western Xia and Yuan dynasties, which contains some 45,000 square meters murals in area and 2400 painted sculptures. In 1900 over 5000 items including various manuscripts and paintings dating from Western Jin (266-316 AD) to Song dynasties (960-1276 AD)were found in the Hidden Library Cave (No.17). In 1961 the Mogao grottos were listed in the first group of major cultural relics to be protected at the national level by the State Council, and in 1987 were listed by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage site.  Dunhuang Mogao Grottos ,Datong Yungang Grottos in Shanxi province, Luoyang Longmen grottos in Henan province and Tianshui Maijishan grottos in Gansu province were collectively known as China’s four most famous grottos.

The Nine-Storied Building : It was built in early Tang dynasty (618-705AD) in front of Cave No.96, which can be a good protective shelter. At beginning only four stories were built, until to 1935 the extra stories were built on. Totally it has 9 storied, so local people normally call it Nine-storied Building ( Jiu Ceng Lou pronounced in Chinese) . It can be one of typical symbols of Mogao grottos. The picture of Nine-Storied Building can be seen from many magazines, newspapers, website and so on. Inside Cave No. 96 there is the giant Buddha statue in Mogao grottos  around 35.5 meters high. The Buddha statue were built in 695 AD , which is called Maitreya  Buddha, the future Buddha in Buddhism world. Maitreya Buddha is the successor of Sakyamuni (the founder of Buddhism). Every Buddhism festival a lot of local people will be here to worhip the Buddha.

Hidden Library Cave : It is Cave 17, which is a small cave inside Cave 16. It is discovered in 1900 by a Taoist, Wang yuanlu, living in the Mogao grottos. When he was cleaning the dust of the north aisle wall in the cave 16, suddenly a long crack appeared in the wall. He felt so strange, so he asked his disciples to open the wall. Then a small cave was found, which is 2.6 meters long and wide and 3 meters high. Over 5000 pieces of relics were found in the cave, which dates from 4-11 century and include historical documents, paper paintings, silk paintings, embroidery, etc. Afterwards the cave was called as Hidden Library Cave (No.17).The inner wall of this sutra cave is painted with images of Bodhi trees and bhikkhuni. In the centre of Cave 17 there is a low altar in the form of Zen bed, on which is the sitting posture of a senior monk named Hongbian.

The Hidden Library Cave in Mogao grottos is a very important discovery in the Chinese archaeological history. Most of unearthed documents were written texts, and a few were engraved texts. About five sixth of unearthed documents were written in Chinese, while the rest were written in ancient Tibetan, Sanskrit, Qilu,Sutep, Tep, Uygur, Kiuci and Hebrew, etc. The contents of documents are maily Buddhism sutras, besides Taoism sutras, Confucian classics, novels, poems, historical records, cadastral books, accounting books, calendar, deeds, letters, forms,etc. All these are with important value in historical material and science. Thus a special subject, Dunhuangology, was formed, which focuses on the study of documents of the Hidden Library Cave and the art of Dunhuang grottos.

The level:World Cultural Heritage

Entrance fee:

season            tourists	With Chinese-speaking guide	With foreign language guide
peak season（Apr.1--Nov.30）	238 yuan RMB（ticket A）	258 yuan RMB（ticket A）
off season (Dec.1—Mar. 31)	148 yuan RMB	168yuan RMB

Ticketing Selling Time:

Season ticket office	peak season（Apr.1--Nov.30）	off season (Dec.1—Mar. 31)
dunhuang   city	Apr.1-- Apr.30  (08:00—16:00)	closed
	May1—Oct.31(07:00—21：00)
the digital centre of Mogao	Apr.1—Oct.31(07:30—15:00)	08:30—15:00
	Nov.1—Nov.30(08:30—15:00)

Better time to visit: all the time

Visiting Time Normally: around 3.5 hrs

Visiting Mode Normally: Since 2014 as the number of tourists started to be limited to 6000 per day ,the booking system of visiting Mogao grottos has been implemented . From then on,visiting Mogao grottos  consists of two parts: Mogao Digital Exhibition Centre and original caves area. The two parts adopt a joint ticket system , and are not sold separately. Tourists have to book the tickets online by themselves or local travel agency. The detailed online booking information can be found at http://www.mgk.org.cn/.

After arrival and collecting the tickets, tourists have to visit the digital exhibition centre of Mogao grottos and watch two movies about Mogao grottos.The two movies will last about 50 minutes. Then tourists will take a shuttle bus together around 20 minutes to reach to original caves to visit. When the shuttle bus drop tourists to the point near the caves area, tourists need walk five more minutes to the the entrance of the caves ,and then follow the cave’s guide to visit. 

Visiting Tips: 1, The ticket of Mogao grottos is allowed to be reserved one month earlier before your arrival. Strongly suggest you booking the tickets earlier by yourself or local travel agency in peak season because the number of tourists (ticket A) is limited to 6000 each day;

2, The ticket will be checked twice. The first time is at the entrance of digital exhibition centre of Mogao grottos. The second checking time is the entrance of original caves. So when you are watching movies in the digital exhibition centre , you should preserve your tickets very well. If the ticket is lost, the trouble will happen to your visiting original caves;

3, When you are watching movie and visiting inside the grottos , taking photos and making videos are strongly prohibited. But when you step out of cinemas and grottos, it will be allowed;

4, The murals and sculptures in the grottos are protected by law. The behavior of touching murals, carving, graffiti etc , which involes the damage to the Mogao grottos, are strictly prohibited;

5, In the grottos it is not allowed to visit by yourself. Tourists must follow the guide of Mogao grotts to visit;

6, If the equipment of the digital exhibition centre fails to work properly, the digital centre will not provide movie-watching service,and visitors will only visit the physical caves of Mogao grottos;

7, The caves will be closed to the public in case of force majeure ,such as heavy rain, heavy wind and sandstorm. The tickets reserved will be fully refunded;

8, Dunhuang’s climate belongs to temperature continental climate. The ultraviolet ray here is quite strong , so please bring the sunscreen equipment when you come to visit in summer. When you come in winter, please check the weather condition in advince, and prepare anti-cold clothing or equipment;

9, Before you start your tour, please read some books or materials online about the grottos, which is really helpful to understand it much easier.

10,During Chinese summer holiday (July and August), a lot of tourists will be here,which makes Mogao grottos a heavy visiting burden. So please avoild this hottest season if possible , and choose other seasons to visit,which is both good for cave's preservation and tourists' travel result.

Related Articles and Tours:

7 Days Terrific Silk Road Tour                   8 Days  Charming Silk Road Tour

 9 Days HexiCorridor Tour                        10 Days Essence Tour of the Silk Road

12 Days Silk Road Adventure Tour            7 Days Zhangye to Dunhuang Tour

 8 Days Silk Road Bullet Train Tour        10 Days Charming Silk Road Tour

11 Days Classic Silk Road Tour              15 Days Silk Road Chanllenging Tour