Hanging Temple

Shanxi·Datong·Hanging Temple, a 1500-year-old wooden cliff art It's time to see Shanxi, Jinshan Jinmei, endless ancient buildings on the ground. You have to see it once, the Hanging Temple among the eighteen scenes of Hengshan. One of the world's top ten dangerous buildings, the wooden treasure standing on the cliff for 1500 years 🏖️🏖️Recommended Reason 🌈The only remaining temple in China that uniquely combines Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism 🌈Selected by the American 'Time' magazine as one of the world's top ten unstable buildings (also including the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy) 🎈Introduction to the Hanging Temple 🌈The Hanging Temple is located between the cliffs of Cuiping Peak on the west side of Jinlong Gorge in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province. It is famously precarious as if hanging over an abyss. The Hanging Temple was originally called 'Xuankong Pavilion', with 'Xuan' derived from the teachings of the traditional Chinese religion Taoism, and 'Kong' from the teachings of Buddhism. Later, it was renamed 'Hanging Temple' because the entire temple appears to hang on the cliff 🌈The temple is a wooden frame structure with 40 halls, towers, and pavilions. In fact, the Hanging Temple is not large, but what is most astonishing is that it relies on mortise and tenon joints and is embedded in the cliff without falling 🌈The Hanging Temple was built during the Northern Wei Dynasty and has a history of more than 1500 years. It is the earliest and best-preserved high-altitude wooden cliff building in China 🌈The pavilions are connected by walkways, and although the temple is not large, it is ingeniously constructed 🎈Attraction Features The Hanging Temple of Hengshan is about 50 meters above the ground. The Hanging Temple has developed China's architectural tradition and style, and its architectural features can be summarized in three words: 'extraordinary, hanging, and ingenious' 🌈Extraordinary The design and location of the temple construction, the Hanging Temple is located in a small basin in the deep mountain gorge, hanging in the middle of a stone cliff. The protruding part of the stone cliff top looks like an umbrella, protecting the ancient temple from rain erosion. When the floods rise below the mountain, it is also spared from being submerged. The surrounding mountains also reduce the exposure time to sunlight. The superior geographical location is one of the important reasons why the Hanging Temple has been well preserved 🌈Hanging The temple has a total of 40 halls and pavilions. At first glance, it seems to be supported by more than a dozen wooden pillars as thick as bowl mouths, but in fact, some of the pillars do not bear any load, and the real fulcrum is embedded in the hard rock, using the principle of mechanics with half-inserted flying beams as the base 🌈Ingenious The 'ingenious' of the Hanging Temple is reflected in the construction of the temple according to local conditions, making full use of the natural state of the cliffs to arrange and build various parts of the temple. The layout and form of the general temple's flat buildings are constructed in three-dimensional space. There are mountain gates, bell and drum towers, main halls, side halls, etc., and the design is very intricate