Once you see one cliffside temple...

It turns out that once you see one temple built precariously into a cliff-side, you will spend your entire life seeking out others like it.  Not really.  I actually planned on skipping Mati Si near Zhangye to save money and time, because I had already seen the Hanging Temple near Datong a few weeks ago with my parents.  But when the German couple I had met up with mentioned they were going to Mati Si the next day, I decided to tag along. 

Mati Si

Tibetan prayer flags in front of a snow covered mountain

As with the Hanging Temple in Datong, I have no idea why anyone chose to build a temple in such a strange and dangerous place.  But that's where the similarities end, and I'm so glad I got to see both.  Mati Si is more cave-like and built into the cliff itself. The largest section has five distinct floors connected by tunnels and staircases.  Eact floor had several rooms for prayer, and of course a beautiful view.

Mati Si (Horse Hoof Temple) is named after a hoof print left by a fairy horse.  I don't know how the builders of the temple knew it was a fairy horse and not a real horse, but I guess I'll just take their word for it.  Mati Si was breathtaking, and one of the best parts was that we had it nearly to ourselves.  When we arrived, there was only one other car in the parking lot, and by the time we left we had seen no more then ten other tourists.  In China it often seems impossible to escape the crowds, so the solitude was a big plus for Mati Si. 
After walking through the first temple, I hiked up the hill behind it for some spectacular views.

 

The surrounding hills, dotted with grottoes

I stopped at a second, smaller temple on the way back to Zhangye.  It was smaller but had its share of surprises, including the section where the monks had decided not to build stairs but instead just carved handholds into a vertical chute.  I knew my rock climbing past would be useful eventually! 

About to descend the vertical tunnel

After a quick street food snack in Zhangye, I checked out the largest clay indoor sleeping Buddha in China.  Every town or city wants to have the biggest Buddha, and after they add in all those qualifiers, I guess they can have the biggest of one very specific kind of Buddha, but they all look pretty similar to me, and after seeing the actual largest Buddha in the world in Leshan, Zhangye's sleeping Buddha was only mildly interesting.
My trip to Zhangye was a whirlwind tour.  Gansu province and Zhangye definitely deserve more time, and hopefully I'll be back someday.