Longmen Grottoes is located 12km south of Luoyang City. Longmen Grottoes, Datong Yungang Grottos, together with Dunhuang Thousand Buddha Caves Grottos are three famous Grottos in China. In November 2000, UNESCO inscribed Longmen Grottoes on World Heritage List.

Longmen started to be carved in Northern Wei Dynasty when emperor Xiaowen moved his capital to Luoyang (A.D.493). It took over 400 years to complete carving. At present there are over 2,300 caves and niches, more than one hundred thousand Buddhist images and over 300,000 characters of inscriptions. It has been known as the “forest of ancient steles” for the biggest number of steles and inscriptions ever seen in any of the grottoes in the world. The large numbers of materials in kind and literary data have reflected the developments and changes of Chinese politics, economics, religion, culture, and other aspects in ancient times.

Longmen Grottoes was good choice for the imperial members and nobles of the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasty to make vows and create statues. It was mainly embodiments of imperial wills and behaviors. Fengxiansi Cave, the largest one, is the most representative works of sculpture art of Tang Dynasty.

The grottoes and niches of Longmen contain the largest and most impressive collection of Chinese art of the late Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties (316-907). Longmen Grottos have made important contributions to the creation and development of the Chinese art of stone carving.