China discovers 635 cave temples, cliff statues

BEIJING, Dec. 24 (Xinhua) -- China announced Friday that 635 cave temples and cliff statues were discovered in a 10-month field survey nationwide.

The new discoveries brought the total number of the country's cave temples and cliff statues to 5,986, the National Cultural Heritage Administration (NCHA) said.

Among them, 2,155 are cave temples and 3,831 cliff statues, with 288 sites under state protection, the NCHA added.

Braving high altitudes and bad weather, about 2,000 researchers in more than 150 teams had taken part in the survey to examine the conservation of the country's grotto sites.