Mati Temple

⛪️ Mati Temple Grottoes, located in Gansu, China, is a must-visit destination for anyone interested in history and culture. As someone who loves exploring ancient sites, I found this complex of caves and temples to be absolutely stunning. The intricate carvings and sculptures inside the grottoes are a testament to the incredible skill and artistry of the people who created them so many centuries ago. 🤩 One of the highlights of my visit to Mati Temple Grottoes was the opportunity to witness firsthand the incredible walks inside the rocks of these ancient structures. The attention to detail and dedication of the original artists is truly remarkable, and it's heartening to know that these cultural treasures are being preserved for future generations to enjoy. We stayed at a local hotel nearby, which was really nice to wake up and just walk to the temple. There are plenty of beautiful surrounding walk, and I would highly recommend going and walking up the many steps to the viewing platform opposite the stupas! Winner views!!! ⛰️ Overall, I highly recommend a visit to Mati Temple Grottoes for anyone traveling to Gansu. The combination of history, culture, and stunning natural beauty makes for a truly unforgettable experience. #roadtrip #tripleblazer #ancientlandmark

Pictures speak louder than words ✌️ How to get there: rental car from Xining (3h), best a 4 wheel drive as the last 5km are not good What’s to see: Nature, temple, local culture and horseback riding Costs: hotels are local, below 200RMb/night. For the horses we paid around 200/each for half day Time needed: full weekend What to look for: Go remote with the horses Don’t forget to bring your drone for some of these beautiful aerial shots 🛸 IG: andykoh_m8 #germaninchina #travellifestyle #aroundtheworld

Mati Temple is one of the most famous scenic spots in Zhangye. The temple is located over 50km from Zhangye city making it difficult and very long to get there by bus. If you can, hire a driver for your journey. Opening Hours: 08:30-18:00 Tickets: 73 RMB/person 📍Address: Sunan Yugu Nationality autonomous county, Zhangye, Gansu ⏰Recommended time: 2-3.5 hours. There are quite a few stairs so it depends on how fast you can go. I recommend just taking your time and taking in the beautiful landscape as well as the grottoes. #grottoes #zhangye #gansu #summervacation #china #thisischina #beautiful

Mati Temple was built in the Jin Dynasty, and features a series of grottoes that blend into the cliff face! In total there are 7 small grotto groups that stretch over 30km, and legend has it that this temple was so named because a sacred horse left a footprint in the rock here - which you can also see inside the temple!). Aside from the grottoes, the area itself is super beautiful, with lush greenery surrounding the entire area. 📍Mati Temple, Gansu Province, China #leaveyourmark

Ma Ti So horse hoof temple 马蹄寺。 Very famous destination for travelling. The built in the rock temple is admirable pattern of ancient master piece and spirit! The temple is 1600 years old. The narrow corridors in tiny rock smells like a mysterious secret place. The artifacts also are not usual, especially, that Buddha stature with another Buddha in a belly. To get there it is important to catch one bus from south bus station in Zhangye. Note: the bus schedule are varied from time to time, usually there are three morning busses: 7-25, 8-25, 9-25; but when we have arrived to buy the ticket we were told there is only one at 9-15 because there are not enough tourists. Futher, please, precise the information from the driver, where and when he will pick passengers for return trip If this only one bus will be missed, well... you have to think over your returning. The temperature difference could shock! At the night there snow fall had happened, we came with very warm clothes, but after noon it became more than 20+ degrees Celsius and we took off all clothes, even T-shirts. The surrounding landscape is beautiful, just very very beautiful. #tripaway#triplocal

#thousandbuddhatemple was constructed during the Yuan dynasty in 1271-1368. This temple, also carved out of the cliff face and pockmarked with thousands of tiny holes like a Swiss cheese mountain #zhangye #silkroad #happynewyear

#matitemple is temple with legend a winged horse with dragon scales descended from the heavens and left a hoof print on where the temple was established. The site is mentioned as described as a chiseled-out cave in the process of being enlarged and decorated with Buddha statues in the fifth/ sixth centuries #zhangye #silkroad. #unforgetabletrip #temple #happynewyear

Northwest Travel | Zhangye Horseshoe Temple Caves Horseshoe Temple is a tourist area that combines the art of grottoes, the scenery of Qilian Mountain and the Yugu people. The entire Horseshoe Temple is very large. If you want to play the entire scenic spot, it is estimated that it will take a day. Because of the time, we only selected a few more famous points. The Horseshoe Temple is not the same as an ordinary temple. It has no majestic treasure hall. There is no Qionglou Yuyu. It only has a labyrinth of caves in the upper and lower layers. huge cave temple complex, multiple cave statues carved on the stone walls

As a bright pearl on the ancient "Silk Road", Gansu Zhangye has formed a beautiful picture with unique western characteristics with its long history, splendid culture, beautiful mountains and rivers, and simple ethnic customs. Many people come to Gansu. I definitely want to go to the Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes to see it. I dont know that there is a temple in the Jin Dynasty in Zhangye. This is the Horseshoe Temple. It is a collection of grotto art, religious culture, ethnic customs and natural scenery. It has been around for more than 1600 years. History, the Horseshoe Temple is named after the legendary Tianma has a horseshoe print here. The legendary horseshoe imprint is now in the Horseshoe Hall of Puguang Temple and becomes the treasure of the town temple. It consists of Shengguo Temple, Puguang Temple, Thousand Buddha Cave, Upper, Middle and Lower Guanyin Caves and Jinta Temple, which are distributed in more than 100 square kilometers.

The Horseshoe Temple, also known as the "Puguang Temple", was built in the Northern Liang Dynasty. It has a history of more than 1,500 years. Because of the obvious horseshoe imprint on the bluestone plate of the horseshoe temple of the temple, it is said that it is King Saars mount was left behind, so he got his name. The original scale of the Horseshoe Temple includes the Jinta Temple, the Thousand Buddha Cave, the North and South Horseshoe Temple, the Upper and Lower Guanyin Caves and other grottoes and monasteries. There are more than 70 grottoes. It is another group of grottoes in Gansu, which is second only to Dunhuang Mogao Grottoes, Tianshui Maiji Mountain and Yongjing Bingling Temple. The temple feels very peaceful because it is located in the suburbs. This is a "temple" that subverts the image of a traditional temple in your heart. It does not have a strict temple, no ancient trees, no monks. Although it was destroyed, it can be seen through the residual statues and murals that it is a place of fragrant pilgrimage.

Deeply impressed by the miraculous handiwork of nature at the Peach Blossom Land. ||📍Gansu Zhangye Mati Temple Tourist Attraction 🐒Must-see and fun: Qilian scenery, grotto murals, pavilion architecture, the joy of crawling through narrow tunnels, offering incense and praying for blessings 🎬Watch the documentary 'Hexi Corridor·Roots' before going to enhance understanding. 🐾Climbing inside the palace, steep and narrow with dust, do not wear skirts, try to avoid light-colored clothes, go lightly equipped. . 🌲 At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, amidst the chaos of the dynasty, Zhangye on the Hexi Corridor still maintained relative stability and tranquility. Therefore, the great scholar Guo He and his disciples fled to Hexi. After a long and arduous journey, when they arrived at the Linsong Xie Valley at the foot of Mati Mountain in Zhangye County, they stopped. The undulating pine waves and the lush green mountains and valleys gave them the power of inner peace, and Guo He chose this place as a haven for living and teaching, preaching, and solving doubts. 🌲 Later, a young man from Dunhuang, Guo Yu, came to admire and became a disciple of Guo He. After his teacher's death, he carried on his mentor's legacy, promoting the Confucian culture. Besides studying, he also led his disciples to carve grottoes in Mati Mountain for teaching and practicing. In the peaceful valley, the sound of chiseling echoed. And in the distant future, the Mati Temple grottoes became a witness to the intersection of Confucianism and Buddhism, two great civilizations on the Hexi Corridor of that era. 🌲 Standing under the hundred-foot cliff, looking up at the halls embedded deep in the mountain, I am still deeply impressed by the wisdom and faith of the ancients. How many difficulties must have been overcome, day after day, to create such a sanctuary for meditation. Despite thousands of years of weathering, it still stands tall. 🌲 The most eye-catching among them is the Thirty-Three Heavens Grottoes. Seven levels up and down, with twenty-one grottoes in total. Tunnels connect each level, with winding corridors that only allow one person to pass through. The Buddhist scriptures say that in the center of Mount Sumeru is the Shakyamuni Heaven, and the four surrounding peaks each have eight heavens, inhabited by eight directional deities, making thirty-two heavens in total, along with the central Shakyamuni Heaven, they make up the 'Thirty-Three Heavens,' a place of entertainment for the gods. The ancients, with bold imagination, carved the Thirty-Three Heavens of Mati Temple on earth, hoping to transcend through practice and rejoice with the gods. 🌲 As I climbed up, looking through the cave entrance into the distance. Layers of mountains, clouds clinging to each other, the chill of autumn dyes the valley in shades of green and yellow. Houses are scattered at different heights, pines and cypresses form green waves, and any description seems so shallow in front of the beautiful scenery. But suddenly, I can understand why our ancestors chose to settle here during turbulent times. 🌲 When leaving, a gust of wind blew, the wind chimes under the eaves rang, as if echoing from the depths of history, resonating with my heart. At that moment, I was so moved that I didn't know what to do.

🎈Day Eight: Zhangye Mati Temple 🎈Mati Temple is definitely the highlight of this Hexi Corridor trip! The name 'Little Switzerland of the East' is well-deserved! 🎈While watching a documentary about the Hexi Corridor, I knew there was a place called Linsong Xie Valley, a meeting point of Han and Tibetan Buddhism. When we drove to the entrance of the Mati Temple scenic area, we were stunned by the continuous peaks and snow-capped mountains. Upon entering the scenic area, a landscape of autumnal mountains and waters unfolded before us, a perfect fusion of natural and cultural landscapes, as if we were in a paradise. 🎈We drove to the visitor center, bought tickets, and drove straight into the scenic area. Due to time constraints, we only stayed at Mati Temple and didn't visit Jinta Temple, but at the Zhangye Museum, we saw a replica of the Jinta Temple grottoes, so we had no regrets. 🎈Although the Thirty-Three Heavens Grottoes and the Thousand Buddha Caves have been severely damaged, their architectural forms are still worth exploring. The grotto plank road is built inside the mountain, winding and twisting, and some sections can be quite thrilling. Sometimes, we even felt like we were climbing up to a hanging temple. 🎈Standing at the top of the Thirty-Three Heavens Grottoes, overlooking the Ximalian Beach, the view is magnificent. After descending the mountain, we continued to explore, following the road ahead, greeted by the splendid autumn scenery. Moreover, there are few visitors here, and the roadside is planted with a sea buckthorn trees, which are in the season of ripe fruits. Picking a few sea buckthorns to try, the taste was simply delicious. 🎈The preservation of the grottoes at Mati Temple is not complete, and visitors can only see four of them. However, the explanations in the scenic area are very detailed, leaving a deep impression. After leaving Mati Temple, we moved on to Wuwei. On the Lianhuo Expressway, we also saw the ruins of the Ming Great Wall, and even encountered a group of camels by the road, such unexpected beautiful scenery always brings a pleasant surprise.