Discover Chongqing
Dazu Rock Carvings
大足石刻
A UNESCO World Heritage site of some 50,000 cliff-carved Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian figures from the 9th to 13th centuries. The Baodingshan horseshoe gorge, with its 31-metre reclining Buddha and the Wheel of Life, is among the finest sculpture anywhere in China.
The story
What makes this place special
The Dazu Rock Carvings are a group of Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian cliff sculptures in Dazu District, about 165 km west of central Chongqing, listed by UNESCO in 1999. Carving began around 650 in the early Tang, took off in the late 9th century when Wei Junjing began work at Beishan, continued through the Five Dynasties period (907–965), and reached its height in the 12th century when the monk Zhao Zhifeng spent some seventy years directing the work at Baodingshan. Across 75 protected sites there are around 50,000 figures and over 100,000 characters of inscription. The mixing of three religions in one site is what makes it unusual.
What you’ll discover
Two sites matter. Baodingshan is a U-shaped valley with roughly 500 metres of cliff carved in sequence — the reclining Buddha, the thousand-armed Guanyin, the Wheel of Life, and a long register of hell scenes and scenes of ordinary 12th-century life, including a famous herdsman sequence. Beishan is a 300-metre cliff face of smaller, finer, mostly Tantric niches from the 9th to 12th centuries, with far fewer visitors. Both are outdoor cliff walks rather than caves.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Baodingshan and Beishan are about fifteen kilometres apart. Most day visitors only do Baodingshan; if you only have time for one, that is the right choice, but Beishan is quieter and the carving is finer.
- Go anticlockwise round the Baodingshan valley against the flow of tour groups and you will have the hell reliefs and the herdsman panels largely to yourself.
- The carvings are painted stone in open air and read very differently depending on the light. Overcast is better than bright sun, which flattens the relief.
- It is a long day trip from the city — allow the whole day. High-speed rail to Dazu plus a local bus is faster and more reliable than a car in city traffic.
- The thousand-armed Guanyin is behind glass in a protective hall and has been restored; the unrestored niches either side of it show you what the rest looked like before conservation.
When to come
Spring and autumn, on an overcast or lightly cloudy day. Arrive at opening to get ahead of the coach groups, which land mid-morning.
Getting around
Baodingshan involves a long walk on paved paths with substantial flights of steps and slopes around the valley; there is no step-free circuit of the whole site, though the main approach and some of the flatter sections near the entrance are manageable. Beishan requires climbing to the cliff. Someone with a bad knee can do a shortened Baodingshan visit; a wheelchair user will see part of the site only and should expect assistance to be needed on the steps.
Worth knowing before you go
If you only have time for one hill, make it Baodingshan - it is a single coherent narrative programme rather than a collection of niches. Allow at least an hour for the train and shuttle each way.
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