Yulin Caves
Yulin Caves contain 43 well-preserved cave temples dating back a thousand years, with 272 painted sculptures and more than 5,650 square metres of murals.…
Yulin Caves, Dunhuang · Redpipe · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Key facts
- Admission
- General admission: ¥40; admission to representative caves: Cave 2 ¥100, Cave 3 ¥150, Cave 4 ¥100, Cave 25 ¥200
- Opening hours
- 9:00–17:30 (peak season); 9:30–17:00 (off-season)
- Time needed
- 2–3 hours
- Getting there
- Take a chartered car from Guazhou. You can combine the trip with Yulin Caves, Suoyang City and the Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves. Along the way you will pass several ancient city ruins, which you can visit free of charge.
- Guidebook rating
- 3 / 5
From China Self Guided Travel 2025, page 760. Open in Google Maps
About Yulin Caves
Yulin Caves contain 43 well-preserved cave temples dating back a thousand years, with 272 painted sculptures and more than 5,650 square metres of murals. The murals are grand in scale and exquisitely detailed. The 25-metre-high gilded Maitreya Buddha, radiant and magnificent, and the strikingly lifelike Eighteen Arhats, along with the expressive Mute Arhat, are classic examples of Yulin Caves' painted sculptures and are exceptionally rare anywhere in the world.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Yulin Caves cost?
Admission to Yulin Caves is General admission: ¥40; admission to representative caves: Cave 2 ¥100, Cave 3 ¥150, Cave 4 ¥100, Cave 25 ¥200, as listed in the 2025 guidebook. Prices can change; check the official channel before you go.
What are the opening hours of Yulin Caves?
Yulin Caves is open 9:00–17:30 (peak season); 9:30–17:00 (off-season).
How do I get to Yulin Caves?
Take a chartered car from Guazhou. You can combine the trip with Yulin Caves, Suoyang City and the Eastern Thousand Buddha Caves. Along the way you will pass several ancient city ruins, which you can visit free of charge.
How long should I spend at Yulin Caves?
Plan on 2–3 hours for Yulin Caves.
Where is Yulin Caves?
Yulin Caves is in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, in the Northwest of China. Suoyang Town, Guazhou County, Jiuquan City
More places in Dunhuang
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Mogao Caves
Located 25 km southeast of Dunhuang city, on the southern side of Mingsha Mountain, the Mogao Caves are China’s largest cave complex. Their finest treasures are the murals and painted sculptures, created from the Former Qin dynasty through the Sui and Tang, making them a treasure of Chinese art. In 1900, the Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu discovered the Library Cave, which held nearly 60,000 historical artefacts, including Buddhist scriptures in various scripts, historical records, letters, literary works and social documents, making it a treasure trove for the study of Chinese history from the 4th to the 11th century. Unfortunately, social upheaval in the late Qing and early Republican periods led to large numbers of these materials being taken away by foreigners, and fewer than one-third of the Library Cave artefacts remain in China. Today there are 492 caves, containing 2,415 painted sculptures and 45,000 square metres of murals. The Nine-Storey Pavilion is the emblem of the Mogao Caves; it houses a 34-metre Tang-dynasty Buddha made of clay over a stone core, which, together with another 26-metre Buddha, is known as the Northern and Southern Great Buddhas.
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