Dragons Gate in Kunming

Today I visited "Dragons Gate" near Kunming.  The full name is actually "龙门石窟" ("Longmen Shiku", or the Longmen Grottos).  If you recall I visited the Longmen Grottos in Luoyang, which were an interesting series of caves with Buddhist sculpture.  Kunming's Dragons Gate is similar, although much smaller (fewer caves), the sculptures are placed in the caves (rather than carved out of the mountain itself), and they are located halfway up a friggin' cliff!

I asked the hotel guy how to get there and he recommended taking the bus, "since you can speak Chinese."  He then gave me a series of directions (in Chinese) that I had to get him to repeat to me in English.  So much for my great Chinese.  I promptly went outside and hailed the first cab I saw.

Here is a view of the Western Hills from the opposite side of Lake Dianchi:

If you take a look at the cliff face and squint your eyes, you can make out the Dragons Gate.  I'll zoom in for you:

Can you see it?  A series of caves and tunnels cut into the cliff face.  These Chinese are  crazy!

There is a trail up to the "scenic area", which as most trails are in China is paved.  Lucky for me because I realized about halfway up that I had worn my sandals today instead of my hiking shoes.

From the main "scenic area" (i.e. where you buy your entrance tickets) you can take a  lift up to the Dragons Gate, or walk.  I haven't been feeling well due to my darn toothache so I took the lift.

At the end of the lift you can get many different kinds of traditional Chinese food.  I had some french fries (deep fried potatoes) with different kinds of hot sauce.

To get to Dragons Gate you walk down a steep path on the cliffside.  The guys who built this must have "had Hua Shan Envy".

Check out the girl in the short white dress and heels.  This is how a lot of the Chinese dress for a hike.  I don't know how she made it up and down some of these stairs in those heels!  I kept expecting her to keel over.

This is the entrance to the tunnel, down to the caves.

There were a small number of caves with painted Buddhist sculpture.  All were brightly painted and seemed to be in active use.

Finally a view of Kunming from the Dragons Gate.

I took the cable car down and to the opposite side of the lake (you can just make out the cable car in the bottom left of the picture).  By this time my teeth were killing me and I was getting a headache, so I tried to grab a cab downtown.  None of the cabbies wanted to take me!  God knows why.  One said "Kan bu qing" (I can't see clearly) as I showed him the map.  Since I was heading to Jinbu Square, the MAIN square of Kunming, I was a bit suspicious.  It would be like a cabbie in Beijing not recognizing Tian'anmen Square.  So anyways I walked along the lakeshore (a very nice park, 10 RMB entrance fee (!)) to the bus station, where I caught  bus back to my hotel.