The Maijishan Grottoes - Artistic Treasure of China’s Past

China has four major Buddhist cave complexes - by far the most visited being the Longmen caves. Less well known are the Maijishan Grottoes. Situated in Gansu Province in the northwest of China, this astonishing example of cave architecture hewn from rock consists of over 7,000 Buddhist sculptures not to mention almost 1000 square meters of murals.

Image Credit Flickr User Mke1963

Timelapses from the Silk Road

Chris Northey, a freelance digital designer, shot these timelapses while traveling along the ancient Silk Road from China to Uzbekistan in mid-2012. They feature familiar places to many, Beijing and Xi'an in China, then moving on to lesser known Chinese cities, Turpan (left) and Kashgar.  Thence to Kyrgyzstan and we experience the sights of ash Rabat and Song Kol. Finally we end up in Uzbekistan, visiting Tashkent, Bukhara and Samarkand.

These short timelapses are woven together to create a whole and although we see the Silk Road through very modern eyes many of the sights are the same as people would have seen centuries ago.  The whole short is wrapped up with atmospheric music from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by Brian Eno and David Byrne.  Sublime.