Again we were told 'no pictures'. So I stopped and took out my sketch pad and drew instead. The uniformed guard thought that that was all I'll be doing. He turned and went back to his hut to nap. I started up again to take pictures. I took a lot of pictures, I couldn't stop. Though the Bing Ling temple grottoes were not as extensive as those we saw in Dunhuang last year, I prefer these because the color is so serene and beautiful. They were very simple. Those at Dunhuang were very opulent and fussy. I guess the religious activity at Dunhuang was more vibrant. A monk was reported to have sold a lot of sutras from the caves at Dunhuang to European explorers including Aurel Stein who took them back to Dresden, Germany. Dresden was bombed by the Allied planes and a lot of the treasures taken from Dunhuang was destroyed.
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