Yungang Grottoes Tickets: Four Official Channels, a 15-Day Booking Window, and the ¥120 → ¥100 Switch

Sep 29, 2026·7 min read

On this page

• The ticket: ¥120 in peak season, ¥100 from 1 November
• Booking: four official channels, and one impostor
• The 15-day rule
• Opening hours: verify the day before you go
• What to actually stop and look at
• Cave 20: the Buddha with no roof
• Cave 6: the wall you are meant to read
• The free guided talks
• Getting there, and when to arrive
• Half a day, or a whole day?
• Where a guided tour fits
• Practical notes
• FAQ
• How far in advance can I book?
• Where do I buy tickets, and what about the fake app?
• Check dates and availability

Half an hour west of Datong, a sandstone cliff at the foot of Wuzhou Mountain holds more than fifty cave mouths. Everything inside was carved in one dynasty, the Northern Wei, from the mid-5th century, and the largest figures are still there 1,500 years later. Yungang is China's earliest large cave complex built under imperial patronage, and where Chinese Buddhist sculpture stops looking Central Asian and starts looking Chinese — the faces change cave by cave, visible only on site.

Datong is easier to reach: the airport runs routes to Bangkok, Seoul and Hong Kong, and average stays have stretched from 1.2 days to 3.3.

The ticket: ¥120 in peak season, ¥100 from 1 November

	Peak (1 Apr – 31 Oct)	Off-season (1 Nov – end Mar)
Full price	¥120	¥100
Half price	¥60	¥50

The switch on 1 November is automatic: the price drops ¥20 because the city has turned cold. What you pay back with is shorter daylight, wind and colder mornings.

Half price covers children aged 6 to 18, full-time students with a student card, and visitors aged 60 to 64; free admission covers under-6s, anyone under 1.2 m, and visitors aged 65 and over. Every category needs documentary proof, and free-admission visitors still have to reserve and appear on the entry list, at ¥0. The categories are built around Chinese identity documents, so on a foreign passport check eligibility rather than assuming.

Booking: four official channels, and one impostor

On 5 October 2026 the Yungang Research Institute stated that tickets are sold through four official channels only: the two official mini-programs, Yungang Research Institute and Yungang Grottoes Cultural Tourism, plus the Ctrip, Meituan and Tongcheng platforms. No other channel is authorised, and no "ticket + guide" package exists — a "ticket plus guide, ¥99" listing is a third party marking up the ticket, or a scam.

The same statement addressed impostor mini-programs circulating under a near-identical name, with one character swapped for a similar-looking one. They imitate the booking interface, load it with ad pop-ups, and end by asking for an identity number and phone number. Start from the official site, not from a name that looks almost right.

One structural point for foreign visitors: both mini-programs sit inside WeChat, and the Ctrip group is the one behind Trip.com. Booking needs real-name details for every visitor entered separately, children included. Sort that out before your dates lock in.

The 15-day rule

This is the most misreported fact about Yungang. Since 15 April 2026, tickets are released 15 days ahead, not 7, and the day of your visit does not count. Plenty of Chinese-language material still says 7 days; that is the pre-April rule. Booking itself is simple — date and time slot, each visitor's details, payment. During the October 2026 holiday, tickets for 2–4 October sold out.

Opening hours: verify the day before you go

Two versions are in circulation. One local notice says that from 8 October the site runs 8:30–16:30, with ticket checking stopping at 16:30; a 2026 compilation lists 8:00–17:00. Both describe the current period. Check the Yungang Research Institute website or the official mini-program the day before, and do not plan around the last entry slot in any guide — an early close is hard on afternoon arrivals.

What to actually stop and look at

The route runs one way: Tanyao Square, the Buddha-Worshipping Avenue, the relief wall, Lingyan Temple, caves 1 to 45, and out through Shihuo Street. Two stops deserve longer than the queue in front of them suggests.

Cave 20: the Buddha with no roof

The earliest group is caves 16 to 20, the Tanyao Five Caves, directed by the monk Tanyao. Cave 20 became the signature image by accident: its Buddha was carved inside a cave, but the front wall collapsed in a later period, leaving the figure under open sky. Sandstone has weathered there for 1,500 years and the facial structure has held. It is also the most crowded camera spot — go in with the first group, or save it for the end when the tour groups have gone.

Cave 6: the wall you are meant to read

Caves 5 and 6 are a twin pair. Cave 6 has a square central pillar, and both the pillar and all four walls carry relief carvings of the Buddha's life, panel by panel. The density is the point, and many visitors photograph the open-air Buddha and walk straight out. Light is dim and flash is not permitted, so bring glasses or book a guide.

The free guided talks

Three free public guided tours run daily at 8:30, 10:30 and 14:30, booked through the official mini-program, each capped at 20 people, lasting about 90 minutes, headsets included. Confirm the day's sessions when you book, and note these talks are run for a domestic audience — check the language if you do not speak Chinese. If you miss out, guide desks at the visitor centre and at the cabin at the western end of the Buddha-Worshipping Avenue advise on site.

Getting there, and when to arrive

• By bus, cheapest but with changes. From the east coach station, bus 38 then 12; from the railway station, 4, 15 or 30, then 23, then 3.
• By taxi or car. About 20 km and half an hour. Car parks queue on holidays — and the site's line is blunt: no reservation, do not come.
• Arrive in the morning. Side light gives the figures their depth; after 3 pm you are hurrying the route.

Half a day, or a whole day?

The standard walk above is about 2 hours; with a guided tour, photography and queues, 3 to 3.5 hours is realistic. Add the museums, the film hall and the Dongshan art zone and it is a full day.

One warning matters more than the rest: do not pair Yungang with the Hanging Temple in one half-day. It sits in the Hengshan scenic area in the opposite direction and also runs on timed online reservations with a daily cap. Late October still works — clear air, good visibility — but it is windy and cold at either end of the day.

Where a guided tour fits

Almost everything at Yungang is fixed: real-name tickets, one per person, 15 days out, four channels, no authorised resellers. The saving with a tour is the friction around that — the booking interface and the 20 km transfer — plus an English-speaking guide in front of a wall of unlabelled 5th-century relief, which reads very differently from a plaque you cannot read.

Even with a guide, the 15-day release, the four-channel rule and the real-name requirement still apply, and none of them gets you in without a booking. Check who the ticket is actually registered to before you pay.

Practical notes

• Food. Shihuo Street at the exit serves knife-cut noodles and other local dishes at above-city prices; for a proper meal, Drum Tower East Street.
• Where to stay. Courtyard hotels in the old city put the wall and Huayan Temple on foot.

FAQ

How far in advance can I book?

15 days, not counting the day of your visit. The rule has applied since 15 April 2026 and replaced the earlier 7-day window.

Where do I buy tickets, and what about the fake app?

Four official channels only: the Yungang Research Institute and Yungang Grottoes Cultural Tourism mini-programs, plus Ctrip, Meituan and Tongcheng. Impostor mini-programs have been circulating under a near-identical name to collect identity and phone numbers, so start from the official site.