CROSSROADS OF CULTURES

The rulers of the Northern Wei Dynasty created the Yungang Grottoes as a way to unite China's war-torn ethnic groups under Buddhism. Sun Ruisheng and Li Yang report

Even for those who are not interested in Buddhism or sculpture, when they first arrive at the Yungang Grottoes, they can't helped being touched by the perfect combination of religion, arts and nature presented to them.

It takes about an hour to give a hurried and cursory glance at the grottoes that stretch for about a kilometer along the southern slopes of Wuzhou Hill, which lies 16 kilometers west of Datong in North China's Shanxi province.