Three Immortals Buddhist Caves

Located on the cliff along a river, Three Immortals Buddhist Caves, which is 18 kilometers (11 miles) in the north of Kashgar City, is the ancient Buddhist caves. The caves is 13 meters (17 yards) from the bottom of the cliff and about 8 meters (10 yards) from the top of the cliff, which is very steep and hard for the visitors to climb. As a matter of fact, there are three caves: the west cave, the middle cave and the east cave, each of which has a rectangular entrance. The middle one is the biggest with 2.25 (7.38 feet) meters high and 2 meters (6.6 feet) wide. Unfortunately, there are no original murals preserved in the cave owing to the reconstructions in the Qing Dynasty (1,644 A.D.-1,911 A.D.), only a seated statue of Sakyamuni is preserved. And each cave can be divided into the front chamber and the rear chamber, among which the former is 4 meters (4 yards) long, 4 meters wide and 2.5 meters high (8 feet) and the later is about half the size of the former. There is not any original mural in the West Cave, and it seems as if there is nothing in it from the chiseling marks. The precious murals are well-preserved in the East Cave with more than 70 josses of different sizes around. There is a painted Buddha on the ceiling of the cave, wearing a cassock alternating with blue, green and red colors, which is very rare in the earlier Buddhist murals. Although the site of Three Immortals Caves is a dangerous place for people, yet it attracts the visitors from all round the world each year.

Getting there:
It is 18 kilometers (11 miles) in the north of Kashgar City, you can take a sightseeing bus to get there from the city center. It is open to the public from 8:50 in the morning to 8:00 in the evening every day.

Some travel tips for the visitors to Three Immortals Buddhist Caves:
1. The cave is very dangerous for the visitors to climb, so be careful when climbing.