The Dazu Rock Carvings are not a single cave or statue, but a group of carved landscapes across Dazu District in Chongqing Municipality, southwest China. UNESCO inscribed the property in 1999 and identifies five principal clusters: Beishan, Baodingshan, Nanshan, Shimenshan and Shizhuanshan. Their steep hillsides hold religious images, inscriptions and scenes of ordinary life. The official Dazu Research Institute places Baodingshan about 12 kilometres northeast of central Dazu and Beishan about 1.5 kilometres north of town, so seeing the heritage property means planning between separate locations rather than expecting one compact entrance.
UNESCO dates the major groups represented in the inscription from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries. The official local guide describes a longer story of carving in the district, while distinguishing the dates and subjects of individual sites. This difference matters: there is no single date that describes every sculpture in the wider Dazu region. The World Heritage property is especially valued for the artistic quality and variety of its carvings, and for showing how Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian ideas met in late imperial China. It also preserves evidence of social life that is rarely visible in purely devotional art.