At the top of the Western Hills, a series of grottoes and Taoist shrines have been hand-cut into the limestone cliff face high above Dianchi Lake. The work was begun in 1781 by a single monk, Wu Laiqing, and continued by his successors over 72 years; it includes shrines, statues, prayer halls, and a precarious balcony cut into the cliff with a view that drops 400 metres straight down to the lake.
The final stretch is a narrow corridor through the rock just wide enough for one person at a time — there is single-file traffic and queues during weekends and holidays. The view from the Dragon Gate at the top of the corridor is the iconic image of Kunming: the city laid out below, Dianchi spreading south, and the patchwork of fields on the lake's eastern shore.