Located in Northwest China's Gansu province, the Bingling Temple World Heritage Tourist Area covers 150 square kilometers. It is home to the Stone Grottoes of Bingling Temple (a component of the World Heritage of the Silk Road: the Routes Network of Chang'an-Tianshan Corridor), the Bingling Stone Forest, the Bingling Lake (the largest artificial freshwater lake in northwestern China), and the Yellow River Hydropower Expo Park.

As the largest stone grottoes in Gansu province, the Bingling Temple Grottoes are a world cultural heritage with a history stretching back more than 1,600 years, a national foremost protected cultural heritage site, and one of the six famous stone grottoes in China.

The temple boasts 216 extant grottoes, 815 stone statues, 1,000-square-meter murals, 56 stupas and 438 cultural relics. In particular, the earliest of China's well-preserved statue inscription dating back to 420 during the Western Qin State was discovered in the No 169 grotto.

With the grotto murals and stone statues of different historical periods, the Bingling Temple Grottoes are dubbed "the encyclopedia of stone grottoes" and have historical, artistic, and academic value arising from the development of stone grottoes and sculpture art in China.