On my way to the kidney hospital in the spring, my train stopped at Shijiazhuang, a provincial capitol. From the window of the train I could see a large complex under construction.
I had thought someone might be building a new Orthodox cathedral, but it's probably a mall.
Twenty minutes of my life wasted walking to it.
The area appears to be surrounded by a wall with ramparts. The bus passes through a gate on the south wall, where I disembarked . . .
. . . directly across the street from the Hua Pagoda. My immediate impression was that this tower, built during the Tang Dynasty, was inspired by Hindu temples, although the repeated motifs on the pagoda wall were definitely Chinese.
Leaving the pagoda grounds, the next pagoda appears about 300 m to the north, surrounded by temple buildings.
According to Wikipedia, this is the Chengling Pagoda, in the Linji temple. There was no English documentation anywhere on site, but there was a large photoboard commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the pagoda's construction (apparently last year).
As this was the site of the founding of one of the birthplaces of Chan Buddhism, it is a popular site for pilgrims.
Further north, you enter a town, which is disappointingly ordinary. Then, in the middle of town, there is this recently constructed gate.
A little to the north and west is the Xumi Pagoda, which reminds me somewhat of the Big Wild Goose Pagoda in Xi'an.
The last pagoda that I reached was near the centre of town, and is called the Lingxiao pagoda. It was originally built in the Tang Dynasty but was remodeled extensively during the Song Dynasty
I had thought someone might be building a new Orthodox cathedral, but it's probably a mall.
Twenty minutes of my life wasted walking to it.
Next step was to find a bus (or a series of buses) to get to Zhengding County, which I had identified as a principal tourism objective. As it was an important religious site for over a thousand years, there are numerous temples and pagodas in the area.
Handy reference map
The area appears to be surrounded by a wall with ramparts. The bus passes through a gate on the south wall, where I disembarked . . .
. . . directly across the street from the Hua Pagoda. My immediate impression was that this tower, built during the Tang Dynasty, was inspired by Hindu temples, although the repeated motifs on the pagoda wall were definitely Chinese.
Leaving the pagoda grounds, the next pagoda appears about 300 m to the north, surrounded by temple buildings.
According to Wikipedia, this is the Chengling Pagoda, in the Linji temple. There was no English documentation anywhere on site, but there was a large photoboard commemorating the 1150th anniversary of the pagoda's construction (apparently last year).
As this was the site of the founding of one of the birthplaces of Chan Buddhism, it is a popular site for pilgrims.
Further north, you enter a town, which is disappointingly ordinary. Then, in the middle of town, there is this recently constructed gate.
At one time the site also boasted a bell tower and large halls. Recently, some of the supports for the original hall were recovered onsite, and these have been erected to give you a sense of its size. Additionally, a large earth dragon was found nearby and brought to the site--this probably at one time carried a stone tablet that would have been several metres tall.
Solar observatory on Xumi Pagoda grounds
The last pagoda that I reached was near the centre of town, and is called the Lingxiao pagoda. It was originally built in the Tang Dynasty but was remodeled extensively during the Song Dynasty
Pagoda grounds across a public square
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