Yungang, Longmen or Mogao: Which Buddhist Caves to Visit
Three cave complexes, three completely different visits — open-air sculpture you walk yourself, versus a capped, guided, unlit tour of painted walls. Prices, access and how to choose one.
China's three great Buddhist cave complexes get grouped together in guidebooks as though choosing between them is a matter of convenience. It is not. They are different in medium, in access, in cost and in what the visit actually feels like.
Two of them are sculpture, carved into open cliff faces, which you walk past at your own pace in daylight for under ¥120.
One of them is painting, sealed inside dark caves, which you see on a capped, timed, guide-led tour for around ¥258, in the dark, with no photography.
If you have time for one, the choice depends almost entirely on which of those two experiences you want, and secondarily on where your itinerary already goes.
The short answer
Doing the standard Beijing–Xi'an route: Longmen, at Luoyang, which sits directly on the high-speed line between them.
Going to Datong or Pingyao in Shanxi: Yungang, which is the more impressive sculpture of the two.
Going west to Gansu: Mogao, which is unlike anything else and is the reason to go to Dunhuang.
Want the most sculpture for the least trouble: Yungang.
Want the most extraordinary thing: Mogao, and accept the cost and the constraints.
They are connected
Worth knowing before you choose, because it changes how you look at them.
Yungang was begun around 460 AD under the Northern Wei, whose capital was at Pingcheng — modern Datong. The early caves are enormous, frontal, and show clear Central Asian and Indian influence, because the sculptors and the models came down the Silk Road.
In 494 the Northern Wei moved their capital south to Luoyang. The same court, the same patronage and in some cases the same craftsmen carried on at Longmen. The style shifts visibly: the figures become more elongated, more Chinese, more elegant, and the carving continues through to the Tang, when the greatest of the Longmen figures were made.
Mogao, out at Dunhuang, ran on a different clock — from around the fourth century to the fourteenth, at the edge of the empire, in a medium that could not survive the humidity further east.
Seeing Yungang and then Longmen is watching a single tradition move 700 km and change over a century. That is a better reason to see both than any individual sculpture.
Yungang Grottoes, Datong
Where: about 16 km west of Datong, Shanxi What: 45 major caves, more than 50,000 statues, carved from the 460s Ticket: in recent years around ¥120 peak season and ¥100 off-peak — confirm current pricing Format: open air, walk at your own pace, photography generally permitted outside the enclosed caves Time needed: three hours
The biggest and most immediately impressive of the sculpture sites. Several of the early caves contain seated Buddhas of 14 to 17 metres, and Cave 20's open-air seated Buddha — the roof of the cave collapsed centuries ago, leaving it exposed — is the image that represents the whole complex.
What makes it good: the scale, the state of preservation, and the strong non-Chinese character of the early work. Greek-influenced drapery, Persian motifs, Indian postures. This is the Silk Road visible in stone.
What makes it easy: you turn up with a ticket and walk. No guides required, no timed slots, no cap in normal conditions. You can spend as long as you like in front of anything.
Getting there: local bus or taxi from Datong, about 30 minutes. Datong is roughly two hours from Beijing by high-speed rail, which makes Yungang viable as an overnight from the capital.
Combine with: the Hanging Temple at Hengshan, about an hour south, and the surviving Liao dynasty wooden architecture in and around Datong. Two days in Datong is well spent and almost no foreign visitors make the trip.
Longmen Grottoes, Luoyang
Where: about 12 km south of Luoyang, Henan What: over 2,300 caves and niches, roughly 100,000 statues, carved from 493 through the Tang Ticket: around ¥90, covering the West Hill grottoes, East Hill grottoes, Xiangshan Temple and Baiyuan Garden. Children under 1.4 m or under 12 generally free Format: open air, self-guided, along both banks of the Yi River Time needed: three to four hours
The largest of the three by number of carvings, spread along a river gorge with cliffs on both sides.
The centrepiece is the Fengxian Temple group on the West Hill — a 17-metre seated Vairocana Buddha flanked by attendants and guardian figures, carved in the 670s under Tang patronage. It is the single finest piece of monumental Buddhist sculpture in China and it is worth the trip on its own.
The rest ranges from that down to niches the size of a shoebox, thousands of them, cut into every available surface. The Ten Thousand Buddha Cave contains around 15,000 small figures.
Damage is visible and extensive. Many heads and hands are missing, removed in the early twentieth century and dispersed to museums and private collections abroad. It is worth knowing this before you go, because it is conspicuous once you notice.
What makes it good: the Fengxian Temple group, the river setting, and the sheer density.
What makes it convenient: Luoyang Longmen station is on the Beijing–Xi'an high-speed line. You can stop between the two cities, see the grottoes, and continue the next morning. On the 7-day and 10-day standard routes, this is the cheapest possible addition of a UNESCO site.
Getting there: bus or taxi from central Luoyang, about 30 minutes. There is a lot of walking once you are there, along both banks and across a bridge.
Combine with: the White Horse Temple, and the Luoyang Museum. If you are in Luoyang in April, the peony festival is a genuine event.
Mogao Caves, Dunhuang
Where: about 25 km southeast of Dunhuang, Gansu What: 492 decorated caves, fourth to fourteenth century, containing the largest surviving body of Buddhist wall painting in the world Ticket: the full A ticket is around ¥258 and covers roughly eight caves with a guided tour available in English. A C ticket at around ¥50 covers only the films at the visitor centre. Reduced-access tickets covering fewer caves have existed at intermediate prices, and the arrangements change Format: capped, timed, guide-led, in the dark. No photography inside. Time needed: half a day including the visitor centre
This is the different one, and the constraints are the point.
The medium is painted plaster, not stone. Some 45,000 square metres of wall painting, most of it in colours that have survived because the desert is dry and the caves have been dark.
Access is controlled because light, humidity and human breath degrade the pigments. Daily visitor numbers are capped. You are assigned to a group with a guide who unlocks each cave, illuminates the paintings with a hand torch, explains them, and locks it again. Which eight caves you see depends on rotation, not on choice — they are cycled to spread the wear.
The visitor centre screens two films before you are bussed to the cliff, including a dome projection of caves you will not enter. Skipping them is a mistake; they are the only way you will see the ones that are closed.
Book well ahead through the official Dunhuang Academy channel, and check what the current ticket categories include rather than trusting older information. This has been revised several times.
What makes it extraordinary: thousand-year-old painting at arm's length, in the dark, with a torch moving across it. There is nothing comparable.
What makes it frustrating: you cannot linger, you cannot choose, you cannot photograph, and you will see under 2% of the caves.
Getting there: Dunhuang railway station is about 16 km from the caves and 12 km from the town. City buses run roughly every 30 minutes from around 08:30 to 18:00 for about ¥8; a taxi is around ¥35 and 20 minutes.
The visa constraint. Gansu is not inside the 240-hour visa-free transit permitted area, along with Qinghai, Xinjiang, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Tibet and Jilin. If you are entering China on a transit permit, Mogao is not available to you. It needs a tourist visa. See the Silk Road itinerary for the full route.
The comparison
| Yungang | Longmen | Mogao | |
|---|---|---|---|
| City | Datong | Luoyang | Dunhuang |
| Province | Shanxi | Henan | Gansu |
| Medium | stone sculpture | stone sculpture | wall painting |
| Period | 460s–520s | 493–Tang | 4th–14th c |
| Ticket | ~¥100–120 | ~¥90 | ~¥258 (A) |
| Access | self-guided | self-guided | guided, capped |
| Photography | mostly yes | yes | no |
| Time | 3 h | 3–4 h | half day |
| Transit-permit area | yes | yes | no |
| Detour cost | 1 night | 1 night | 3+ days |
Choosing
If you are doing Beijing to Xi'an by train: Longmen. It costs you one night in Luoyang and nothing else, and the Fengxian Temple group is world-class.
If you have an interest in early Buddhist art: Yungang first, Longmen second. Seeing them in that order shows you the tradition developing, and Yungang's early caves are less damaged than Longmen's.
If you are going west anyway: Mogao, without hesitation. It is the reason Dunhuang exists as a destination.
If you have one week in China: none of them, realistically. All three cost you at least a night, and on a first short trip the Forbidden City, the Great Wall and the Terracotta Army will fill the days.
If you have two weeks and one grotto slot: Longmen for convenience, Yungang for quality, Mogao for singularity.
The fourth one nobody mentions: Maijishan, near Tianshui in Gansu, is a cliff of caves reached by vertiginous walkways bolted to the rock face, with painted clay sculpture rather than stone. It is on the Xi'an–Lanzhou line and it receives very few foreign visitors. If you have already seen two of the three above, this is the interesting next one.
Practical notes for all three
Book ahead at all of them; all three are real-name and require your passport number, and Mogao caps numbers hard.
Photography rules differ and are enforced. Mogao interiors: no. Longmen: generally fine. Yungang: fine outside, restricted in some enclosed caves.
A guide is worth it at Yungang and Longmen. The sites have limited interpretive signage and the iconography is not self-explanatory. Audio guides are available at both. At Mogao a guide is compulsory and included.
Weather. Yungang and Longmen are open-air and exposed — hot in summer, cold and windy in winter. Mogao is in the desert, with intense sun and large day-night swings; it also occasionally closes for sandstorms.
Walking. All three involve significant walking on steps and uneven surfaces.
Official sources
- Dunhuang Academy, Mogao Caves reservations: https://www.mgk.org.cn/
- Longmen Grottoes official site: http://www.lmsk.gov.cn/
- Yungang Grottoes official site: http://www.yungang.org/
Ticket categories, prices, capacity caps and cave rotation all change. Confirm on the official channel for your date, particularly at Mogao where the ticket structure has been revised repeatedly.
Last reviewed: 30 July 2026.