According to Li, more than 30 protection projects have been carried out at the Dazu Rock Carvings over the past two decades, resulting in marked progress on the protection, research, and use of the site.

The Qianshou Guanyin (Thousand-hand Avalokitesvara) statue, carved during the Southern Song Dynasty, is a treasure of Baoding Mountain, one of the sites part of Dazu. In June 2015, after an 8-year national project to conserve its stone relics, aided by technology, salvage efforts were completed. That year, the Art Museum of Dazu Rock Carvings was opened.

After 16 years of surveys and research by experts at the research institute, Dazu Shike Quanji (A Collection of Dazu Rock Carvings) was published by Chongqing Publishing Group in 2019, the first Chinese archaeological report about large grotto temple sites.

In recent years, several international academic symposiums have been held in Chongqing and Ziyang, Sichuan province, to integrate cultural tourism and preservation.

Last August, the first International Forum on Cave Temple Conservation kicked off in Dazu. Experts from countries, including Norway, the United Kingdom, Japan, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan and Nepal, convened to share insights and address common challenges in the global conservation of grotto temples.

Chongqing's Dazu and Ziyang city in Sichuan are known for their stone carvings — 150,000 in all — among which the Anyue Grottoes in Ziyang's Anyue county have been included in the provisional list of UNESCO's World Cultural Heritage Sites.

The Sichuan-Chongqing Grotto Protection and Research Center has been established and has organized 20 international forums and academic exchange studies in Dazu. It is also responsible for publishing the academic journal Cave Temple Research and Conservation.

"The fusion of traditional art and modern technology has led to many changes," Li says, citing the example of Black Myth: Wukong.

The game's production team explored the Dazu Rock Carvings three years ago, and set many scenes in the hit game there.

After its three-day premiere from Feb 21 to 23 in Chongqing, the drama will travel to 10 more cities, including Chengdu, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Nanchang in Jiangxi province, Shenzhen in Guangdong province, Fuzhou and Xiamen in Fujian province, as well as Changsha in Hunan province. A total of 100 performances are planned for the year.

Contact the writers at dengrui@chinadaily.com.cn