The Longmen Grotto, a prestigious World Cultural Heritage site dating back some 1,500 years, is in good hands. That's the word from Chinese and international experts meeting in central China's Henan Province, who agree the site is being well protected.

The Longmen Grotto is situated approximately 13 kilometers south of ancient Luoyang City, and boasts 2,100 grottoes. It has 3,600 inscribed stone tablets and more than 100,000 Buddhist images and statues. Since most of the statues were carved into the cliff face, they have long suffered exposure to sun damage, rain erosion and atmospheric pollution, causing sections of the rock to crumble and break off in chunks.

The Chinese government signed a project protection agreement with UNESCO in November 2001. Repair work included landscape mapping, geological surveying, vertical drill testing and using environment supervising equipment and damage-monitoring devices, and the repairs were completed on time and on schedule. And now repair and protection work on select caves on a trial basis is underway.

Li Zhengang, Director of the Longmen Grotto Institute, said: "The study of the Longmen Grotto concerns many fields including sculpture, Buddhism and fine arts. The next phase of our work is to finish the basic archaeological report of the Longmen caves. At the same time, we will promote the study of other scientific branches related to the Longmen Study. "

The site of Longmen Grotto was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000. Over the past five decades, the Chinese government has invested nearly 300 million yuan or about 37.5 million US dollars on preservation projects, as well as to improve basic facilities at the site, and clean up the surrounding areas of the Longmen Grottoes.

(CCTV.com August 10, 2004)