Date with 20 cultural heritage sites at Cultural and Natural Heritage Day (15)

15. Longmen Grottoes

Tourists visit the Longmen Grottoes in Luoyang, central China's Henan Province, April 17, 2017. The Longmen Grottoes has entered into tourist rush season. (Xinhua/Zhu Xiang)

These grottoes reflect the heyday of Tang Dynasty culture (618-907).

Located 13 km south of Luoyang, Henan province, the Longmen Grottoes are concentrated on the east and west cliffs of the Yishui River, and stretch for one km. Work started on the grottoes around the year 493, during the Northern Wei Dynasty, and continued for the next 400 years.

Large numbers of memorial texts and inscribed stone tablets at the Longmen Grottoes, like the Twenty Gems of Longmen Calligraphy and Zhu Suiliang’s stone tablets, are considered rare treasures of Chinese calligraphy.

The Zhu Suiliang Inscription, made in 641 in honor of the mother of the fourth son of Emperor Taizong, is one of them.

The Longmen Grottoes was added to the list on November 30, 2000.