The Mogao Grottoes, a renowned1 UNESCO World Heritage site in northwest China's Gansu Province, was temporarily closed to tourists on Wednesday, the second time this year due to heavy rain.
甘肃敦煌莫高窟,一处知名的联合国教科文世界遗产地,周三因为暴雨暂时对游客关闭。
At around 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the site began to received
intermittent2 rainfall and the accumulated precipitation from Tuesday to around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday reached more than 20 mm.
The Daquan river in front of the grottoes was hit by the flood. Currently, the rain and the flood have not
affected3 the safety of the cultural
relics4 in the grottoes, said Luo Huaqing, deputy director of the Dunhuang Academy.
The cliff of the grottoes has seen
sporadic5 debris6 fall down and the site was closed to tourists for safety reasons. Tickets sold will be
refunded7.
The rain caused the humidity of the grottoes to rise and if the installed monitoring equipment finds the relative humidity exceeding 63 percent, the grottoes will be closed temporarily, said Guo Qinglin, with the Dunhuang Academy.