Queen Mother Palace Grottoes

Lying some 75 kilometers to the southeast of the Pingliang City the Queen Mother Palace Grotto is located at the confluence of the Jing and Nei River and less than 1 kilometer away from the county seat in the precinct of Jingchuan County. It was built in 510. Queen Mother Palace Grottoes was built leaning the Queen Mother Mountain; it is up to 12 meters. Statues in it were divided into three layers. There is a square pillar straightly up to the roof. It was rebuilt to a pavilion in Qing Dynasty. After renovation of Queen Mother Palace Grottoes, hall and stairs leading to the main hall and winding road has become an important place of pilgrimage for followers of Taoism.

Queen Mother Palace is the birthplace and the location of their ancestral temple of West Queen Mother. It is located on the west of Hui Mountain in Pingliang City. It was first built in the Western Han Dynasty and rebuilt in early Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. In 1992, the local government and private joint rehabilitation, gradually built West Queen Hall, East Duke hall, Ji temple and the main building. Under the Hui Mountain, there is Palace called Huigong. It is said the Palace is the residence of the West Queen Mother and the meet place of the West Queen Mother and East Duke.

The Grotto of the Wangmu Palace was engraved according to the mountain's hypsography, and is rectangular with a pole of 12 meters high and 11 meters deep in the center. The stone statues of Buddha figures are inlaid on the central pole and the three walls of the Grotto, including the statues of the One Thousand Buddhas, Hercules, Bodhisattvas and a white elephant that carries a pagoda on its back. Over 200 statues are placed in the grotto in three layers and most of them were made after the 5th century. The palace has undergone some large-scale renovations, and many pavilions were constructed on the hillsides near the grotto.

For more information, please visit www.top-chinatour.com