It is recommended to add Bingling Temple Grottoes to your itinerary when traveling to Lanzhou

The location of Binglin Temple is particularly good. It is located in Liujiaxia, and for people who come to Lanzhou for tourism, the distance is not far and they can go back and forth on the same day without worrying about the long journey and feeling stress-free. Binglin Temple is located next to the Liujiaxia Reservoir. The reservoir is very large and you can choose to take a boat to the grottoes, or you can choose to drive yourself. Of course, driving yourself is better because if you take a boat, you have to return after a long time, which makes people feel nervous. If you drive yourself, you can navigate directly to the grottoes and arrive in less than three hours. There is also another route that allows you to add the Three Bays of the Yellow River as a waypoint and choose a route around the lake. The scenery along the way will probably be more beautiful. The grottoes at Binglin Temple are much better preserved than those at Mati Temple in Zhangye. There are grottoes from the Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties with exquisite sculptures. In addition to small grottoes, there are also standing Buddhas and reclining Buddhas. It is more diverse than the Tianti Mountain Grottoes in Wuwei, and the tickets are affordable. It has everything you need for visiting grottoes and touring the lake, but the key is that there are few people and it is less commercialized, which is very important. The only shortcoming is that the explanation in the scenic area is not very professional. It only introduces the origin and simple knowledge of each cave, and does not elaborate. There is definitely a gap compared to the explanation in Mogao Grottoes. The last time I went to Binglin Temple was in April and I caught the annual Dharma Assembly at Binglin Shang Temple deep in the river valley. The people there said that the river valley only gradually dries up after April every year, and in winter the water from the Huangyang River reservoir in Qinghai will backflow into the valley and cars cannot pass (I don't know if he said it the other way around, because logically in summer, there should be a lot of water during the flood season that backflows into the valley). I was really lucky because I chose the time to go purely randomly. The ceremony was spectacular, with many believers from Linxia/Qinghai/Lanzhou and local people from Liujiaxia gathering here. Only then did I know that Binglin Temple is a Tibetan Buddhist temple. Their living Buddha was sitting in the main hall, leading the monks in chanting sutras and praying for blessings. I was fortunate enough to go in and the Living Buddha gave me a small colorful rope.