Dragon Gate on Xishan

The Dragon Gate is cut into the sheer cliff of the Western Hills above Lake Dianchi, a couple of dozen kilometres from the centre of Kunming. The Daoist monk Wu Laiqing began the work in 1781, and the stonecutters finished it only seventy-two years later, having driven the gallery, the stairways and the grottoes with statues of deities through the rock by hand. The path runs along a ledge above the drop, in places barely more than a metre wide, and ends at the stone arch of Longmen. From the viewing platforms almost the whole expanse of Dianchi and the city outskirts on the far shore come into view. Higher up the slope stand the Daoist temples of Sanqingge with their painted roofs.

On the map