Why it's worth the drive out of the city — the Dazu Rock Carvings
For most travellers, Chongqing means the 8D city: stacked towers, a train that runs through an apartment block, three-level interchanges and ferociously spicy hotpot. Drive about ninety minutes west, though, and you reach somewhere almost unrecognisably calm — the Dazu Rock Carvings, a series of cliff sculptures that Chinese carvers cut into soft red sandstone from the late Tang dynasty through the Song (roughly the 9th to 13th centuries), more than 50,000 figures in all.
What sets Dazu apart from China's other cave temples is that it isn't simply rows of Buddhas. It is narrative carving that brings Buddhism, Taoism and Confucian thought together — scenes of heaven and hell, lessons on filial piety, even the everyday life of Song-dynasty villagers, laid out across the rock almost like comic panels. That is exactly why UNESCO inscribed it as a World Heritage Site in 1999 and called it the last great masterpiece in the history of the world's cave art.
Among all of Chongqing's sights, Dazu is the one that is quiet, shaded and genuinely thought-provoking. If you have had your fill of the crowds at Hongyadong and Jiefangbei, this is the day you finally get to breathe.
