Tongtian Cliff Grottoes
4 min readGanzhou is such a city that has many places of historic interest and wonderful natural landscapes.But if you leave Ganzhou without visiting Tongtian Cliff Grottoes，undoubtedly you have missed the most arresting and famous tourist attraction of the city.Now we are going to visit Tongtian Cliff Grottoes.It is about ten kilometers away from the center of Ganzhou City.So it will take us about thirty minutes to get there.
Before we arrive at Tongtian Cliff Grottoes，I would like to make brief introduction of this wonderful spot，and I hope you will be satisfied with my explanations.Tongtian Cliff Grottoes，one of the ancient artistic treasure houses，also a national AAAA-rated tourist attraction，is famous for its stone shrine statue group一the largest one in the south of the Yangtze River.It includes three cols，four ridges，ten caverns and covers an area of about six square kilometers.It was excavated in the Tang Dynasty and prevailed in the middle and late Northern Song Dynasty.It is a scenic place with typical mature red landforms，characterized by rising and falling hill ranges，lofty and precipitous cliffs，wonderful places，thriving forests，mysterious caves，gods’grottoes and hanging cliff Buddhist temples.
Tongtian Cliff Grottoes is a tourist resort covering natural scenic spots and man-made historical interests.It is in a hilly area，the highest hill where the Qunyu Pavilion stands is 192.96 meters.Three hill concaves snakes along the hill and ranges from east to west.Forgetting-to-Return Grotto，Meditating Grotto，Dragon and Tigers Grotto，Tongtian Cliff Grotto and Green Jade Grotto along the three hill concaves form the Tongtian Cliff Grottoes scenic area.Many cliff shrines Buddha statues and inscriptions are carved among the sheer precipices and the overhanging rocks.
Entering the scenic spot，you will see a historic lecture site called Wang Yangming Lecture Cave，namely“Meditating Grotto”.Forgetting-to-Return Grotto is a naturally eroded cave through the mountain foot with wind in all seasons，especially in summer，visitors can enjoy fair cool breeze in the cave and will linger withoutthinking of leave.On the wall of the cave inscribed poems of Wang Yangming in the Ming Dynasty.Tongtian Cliff Grotto，the center of the grottoes，is a natural ringlike ridge，it is said that one of the hilltops reaches into the Heaven，so it got the name “Tongtian Cliff Grotto”.There are a lot of historic sites in this grotto，such as Temple of Universal Happiness（Guangfu Si）of the Song Dynasty，Hall of Two Laurels-a place where Chiang Kai-shek intended to imprison General Zhang Xueliang，Memorial Temple-a temple where Su Dongpo visited Yang Xiaoben，Jiang Jinguo’s Summer House，Pond of Jade Water，Spring of One Drop and Statues of Three Saints of Huayan，where their five hundred disciples listened to the lecture of Buddha.Dragon and Tigers Grotto is named for stone statues of Nagarjuna-the founder of Hinayana（Hinayana is a school of Buddhism），one golden dragon and two tigers engraved on the wall，on which there are 39 inscriptions.In Green Jade Grotto there are a lot of stone statues engraved during the Song Dynasty（1127—1279）.It was in this grotto that Master Yang Xiaoben once lived for his hermitage life，and on the wall of the cliff are inscriptions for him，which were inscribed by a prime minister in the Song Dynasty.
According to the statistics，there are 410 shrines Buddha statues，361 carved figures and 128 rock inscriptions of high artistic level in the spot，most of which were made in Tang Dynasty，while the others were made in Song Dynasty or later.The expressions of these statues are different，exquisite，pretty and vivid，it is a rarity in the ancient art of stone carving.Both the statues and the inscriptions in Tongtian Cliff Grottoes are rare in the south of the Yangtze River.In 1988，it was put down by the State Council on the list of the third batch of cultural relic sites（under state’s key protection）.Every year numerous tourists from all over the country continuously come to visit and appreciate them.Each year they return with sweet unforgettable memories.Besides，there are 12 newly-built pavilions，a Pagoda of Good Luck 12.
99 meters high，an Avalokitesvara Dripping Water 9.99 meters high，a 180-mu wateramusement park，a castle-like eco-maze and so on.There comes out a comprehensive tourist scenic area，including food，accommodation，transportation，tour and entertainment as well as shopping.
As our bus drawing close to the destination-Tongtian Cliff Grottoes，I hope I have helped you understand why it is so attractive and is one of the cultural relics of our country.Ok，here we are，please get off and watch your step，let’s go and have a look at these fantastic good views.
