Mogaoku is famous for its sculptures and paintings on the wall in its grottoes. As even carrying bags and cameras are strictly forbidden, there are only pictures of the area outside of the fence, and you'll have to check out books from the library how it looks like inside

For some sculptures and murals, colors were so vivid even after 1500 years, although heavy defacing and graffitis were seen obviously. For Mogaoku, you have to be there to see and feel it unfortunately, which is not an easy task to do.

The gentleman on the left was a Chinese guide who conducted the tour in the Korean language, who spoke really good Korean and we visited grottoes 17. 16. 318, 424, 427, 428, 196, 130, 148 and 237.

Although I hoped to follow an English guide again, and then the Japanese guide again, as I ran out of time (as I was on a group tour), I took a round just once. I'm sure it would have been well-worth see it over and over again.

I confirmed to myself again that I would avoid the group tour if possible as I could not see what I wanted to see enough. Considering the whole cost of coming far away to here, hiring a taxi only for myself is much cheaper than a little saving by joining a group tour.

As I travelled alone and didn't carry tripod, taking a self shot was difficult. I found several guys were walking around talking to visitors that they would willing to help them taking self-portrait. I didn't feel comfortable handing the camera to them to get a picture of me.

Occasionally I found a lone traveller, then we would take pictures for each other, and handing the camera to each other felt way more safer. The bag on the left of leg was mine, and the right one his.

(April 12, 2006)