Northern Xiangtangshan Grottoes: A Must-See Royal Grotto of the Northern Qi Dynasty

The Xiangtangshan Grottoes are located in Handan, Hebei, in Fengfeng Mining District, one of the most adorable place names in China.
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The Xiangtangshan Grottoes are divided into North and South. Northern Xiangtangshan engraves the grand Buddhist scenes with a royal demeanor, while Southern Xiangtangshan interprets folk beliefs with ingenuity.
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The North and South are 15 km apart, but they are like temporal and spatial twin flowers, jointly building the "Northern Qi Model" of Chinese grotto art.
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✨Northern Xiangtangshan
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📍 Address: Xiangtangshan Scenic Area, Hecun Town, Fengfeng Mining District, Handan City
🕒 Opening Hours: 08:00–17:30 (ticket sales stop at 16:30)
🎫 Ticket Price: CNY 60 (CNY 100 for a combo ticket including the shuttle bus)
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✨Highlights
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1️⃣Digital Display Center of Northern Xiangtangshan
Digital technology gives new life to Buddhist statues. Here, you can not only see the Buddhist statues that are still at home, but also the statues that are scattered overseas. In the exhibition hall, there is a Northern Qi statue with an "Oriental Smile," which attracts many tourists to take photos.
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In order to reproduce the "former glory" of the Xiangtangshan Grottoes a thousand years ago, the Xiangtangshan Grottoes Digital Display Center uses imaging technology to digitally restore the grotto statues, allowing the traditional grotto art to regain its brilliance.
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Under many restored Buddhist statues, there are introductory signs thanking foreign XXX museums for providing digital data. These words are always touching. This sad past is certainly sad, but what is even more gratifying is that they are still there.
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2️⃣Great Buddha Cave
The core cave is the Great Buddha Cave, the main royal cave of the Northern Qi Dynasty. The central pillar has niches on three sides. The main Buddha, Sakyamuni, has a full face and a smile. Even if partially damaged, the charm remains undiminished, and it is known as the "No. 1 Buddha of the Northern Qi Dynasty." The pagoda-shaped niches on the cave walls and the religious paintings on the base are in the style of Han Dynasty stone carvings, simple and heavy.
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3️⃣Sakyamuni Cave
In the Sakyamuni Cave, the flying apsaras on the top of the cave flutter their sleeves, holding the konghou and pipa. The sound of the millennium is frozen on the stone wall.
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4️⃣Sutra Cave
The corridors of the Sutra Cave are covered with the Vimalakirti Sutra. The "swallowtail brushstrokes" transitioning from official script to regular script are like swords unsheathed, a "stone library" in the history of calligraphy.
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After visiting the Sutra Cave, it is the way down the mountain. The ridges in the distance are rugged, and new leaves cover the hillside. It is another year of spring. Cold and heat come and go, winter goes and spring comes, this mountain accompanies these grottoes year after year.
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The grottoes are silent, but there is an echo. From the royal majesty of Northern Xiangtang to the folk fireworks of Southern Xiangtang, Xiangtangshan uses 16 grottoes and 5,000 statues to seal the Buddha's light and ingenuity of the Northern Qi Dynasty for thousands of years.

When you lightly touch the cool rock wall with your fingertips, you seem to hear the sound of Sanskrit echoing in your ears—that is the roar of chisels and rocks colliding 1,500 years ago, the rustling sound of the Northern Qi craftsmen's carving knives, and the password that history has left for today.