Dazu Rock Carvings

Baoding sits fifteen kilometres north-east of Dazu town, and its carvings were begun in 1179 by the monk Zhao Zhifeng, who gave the work more than seventy years of his life. The figures run for about five hundred metres along a U-shaped valley near the Longevity Pavilion, cut as open relief rather than as cells, so that the wall itself becomes the shrine. Thirteen scenic groups gather around the Great Buddha Bay, the largest and best preserved of them. Beside Beishan, the quieter hill across the town, this is the Dazu group most visitors meet first.