[Photo Provided to China Daily]

Restoration

His elder sister and his son's objections to the work have dented his morale, he says.

Chang Shana, his sister is a former president of the Central Academy of Art and Design in Beijing. In a previous interview, she said she disagreed with the idea. She once visited the modern caves and found they were built on a "precipitous cliff whose natural conditions are unsuitable for caves". In addition, "the contents of the modern caves murals are incoherent", she says.

The cliff is 30 meters above Danghe River. Each year, water drawn from the reservoir slams against the foot of the cliff.

Three kilometers away, the river flow constantly shakes the Western Thousand-Buddha Cave. There are said to have originally been more than 2,000 caves, but the vibration has, over time, reduced them to less than 20.

In July 2008 a part of the modern caves collapsed, and a mural in Cave 1, painted by Chang Jiahuang's mother Li Chengxian, was stolen as the result of a passage that the collapse opened up.