The Yulin Grottoes, also Ten-Thousand Buddha Valley, exist on cliff banks of the Yulin River is 76 kilometers southeast of Anxi County of Dunhuang in Gausu Province on Map of China. As a branch of Dunhuang art, it is the twin of Mogao Grottoes. However, unlike its twin, it can be enjoyed at leisure as there are no great bustling crowds of people.

[img]http://www.chinatour.com/pictures/guide/contentpic/1407312157.jp... takes its name from the eponymous elm trees lining the Yulin River, which flows through the site along Silk Road travel and separates the two cliffs from which the caves have been excavated. The forty-two caves house some 250 polychrome statues and 4,200 m2 of wall paintings, dating from the Tang Dynasty to the Yuan Dynasty (seventh to fourteenth centuries). The site was among the first to be designated for protection in 1961 as a Major National Historical and Cultural Site. In 2008 the Yulin Grottoes were submitted for future inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Chinese Section of the Silk Road.

The murals here have precise composition as well as vivid shapes and brilliant colors, revealing the high artistic level of painting achieved in the Tang Dynasty. Scripture drawings on the southern and northern walls of this cave are perfect on. For China tourism, the valuable ivory Buddha now being exhibited in Beijing’s Palace Museum is originally from the Yulin Grottoes, having been there for over one thousand years.