[2024 Wutai Attraction] Travel Guide for Yanqing Temple (Updated Nov)
Temples
Address:
Shanwen Village, Yangbai Township, Wutai County, Xinzhou City
Recommended sightseeing time:
1 hour
A forgotten Jin Dynasty hall in the countryside, you probably haven't been here.
✨ Today, I want to share with you a pearl of ancient architecture lost in the fields - Yanqing Temple in Wutai County. 💖 This is also the filming location of "Black Myth: Wukong."
🏯 Historical Origins:
The exact date of Yanqing Temple's construction is unknown, but experts speculate it was around the Jin Dynasty. It may have existed as early as the Tang Dynasty, with renovations in the Song Dynasty (1035 AD) and subsequent repairs in the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. The Northern Song Dynasty's Jingyou 2nd Year Zunsheng Dharani Sutra Pillar in the temple seems to silently tell stories of the past. 😌
🎨 Architectural Style:
- The Great Buddha Hall is three bays wide, about 13 meters long, with a slightly square plan and a single-eave hip roof. Standing on a half-meter-high platform, the wide eaves and bold overhangs convey a sense of solemn beauty. 😍
- The architectural style, with techniques like eaves, interspaces, slanting brackets, and camel humps, is similar to the Manjusri Hall of Foguang Temple. The unique column-reduction method was common in the late Jin and early Ming Dynasties. Although the hall originally had no columns to reduce, it cleverly saved a four-purlin, showcasing the wisdom of the ancients. 👏
- The column head is a five-purlin single-eave single-ang, the interspace is a double-eave, the main space uses slanting brackets, the interspace in the middle of the mountain face also has slanting brackets, the corner columns are clearly raised, and the mountain walls are tapered, with every detail highlighting the unique charm of Jin Dynasty architecture. 🐱🏍
💬 Once, each bay of the Great Buddha Hall had a statue, with the main Buddha in the center "standing tall." Unfortunately, during the Republic of China period, it was converted into a school and dismantled. Although the statues in the hall today are later reconstructions, they still allow one to imagine the grandeur of the past. The wooden beast faces on top of the round columns on both sides of the hall were added in the Qing Dynasty.
🌟 On May 25, 2006, Yanqing Temple was listed as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units, a high recognition of its historical and architectural value. It is not just an ancient building but a witness to history. 💎
💕 If you love ancient architecture and enjoy exploring historical footprints, Yanqing Temple in Wutai County is definitely worth a visit.
Abigail King/20
Architectural Marvel: Unveiling the History and Legends of Yanqing Temple in Shanxi.
🌿Explore Shanxi: Xinzhou Yanqing Temple｜A Mysterious Journey to a Thousand-Year-Old Temple🏯✈️
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🚩Destination: [China] Yangmingbao Town, Dai County, Xinzhou City, Shanxi Province
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⏰Best Time to Visit: Spring (flower season) or autumn (red leaf season)
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⌛Duration: We recommend spending half a day to a full day visiting this ancient temple. If you have more time, consider hiking in the surrounding natural landscapes to experience the rural charm of northern Shanxi.
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💡How to Get There: Take public transportation to Datong Railway Station/Airport, then transfer to a long-distance bus directly to Dai County; or drive and navigate to "Yanqing Temple" to easily find the parking spot and start your historical and cultural journey.👣
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✨Tip #1: To better protect cultural relics and the environment, please wear comfortable, durable, and lightweight clothing, and avoid bringing large backpacks into the temple area. This not only reduces the risk of damage to ground facilities but also allows you to focus more on the tranquility and solemn beauty before you. In addition, considering the possible cold weather or UV radiation, appropriate warm clothing and sunscreen are also important details.😌🥾☀️
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🎐Background & Historical Value📖: Built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, it has a history of nearly 1,500 years. It is not only a key cultural relic protection unit in China but also an important milestone witnessing the prosperity and decline of Chinese civilization. On this ancient land, every brick and tile carries profound cultural heritage and wisdom, waiting for us to discover and appreciate...
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🐲Main Attractions🤗: Upon entering the gate, the first thing you see is the majestic Mahavira Hall, where many Buddhist statues, including Shakyamuni Buddha, are enshrined for believers to worship and pray for peace, health, and other wishes to come true. Moving forward, you will reach the place of Guanyin Bodhisattva, another spiritual sanctuary for devotees. They offer incense and flowers, wishing for world peace, freedom from suffering, and liberation from the cycle of rebirth. In addition to the main buildings mentioned above, there are also auxiliary facilities such as the Medicine Buddha Tower, Bell Tower, Drum Tower, Sutra Library, Manjusri Pavilion, and Samantabhadra Hall, forming a complete religious architectural complex. With their exquisite architectural style and profound historical connotations, they have become an important base for studying ancient Chinese architecture and culture, providing valuable materials and inspiration for future generations.👍🏻✨
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🍜Local Snacks🤤: When it comes to hometown delicacies, how can we forget those mouthwatering classic combinations—knife-cut noodles, bean sprouts with bean curd, tofu pudding, cold noodles, braised pig trotters, lamb skewers, roast whole lamb, and other specialties? The taste is so irresistible that you can't stop eating, satisfying your appetite and taste buds without feeling too greasy. It's a perfect choice!😍🤘🏻🔥
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❤️Conclusion: "This is a place where the soul is purified and elevated, an opportunity to rediscover oneself and the world, and a memorable and precious memory." May we all continue to pursue our dreams and future with this feeling and strength, shining brightly and becoming better versions of ourselves!💕🌹🎓🙆♂️🏃♀️💪💼💖
fyralyn_8901
The sky is high and the clouds are light, listening to the wind of the northern frontier at Yanqing Temple
Yanqing Temple, an open hall, with vast and boundless mountains behind it. The weather was particularly good that day, the sky was blue as if washed, and the resting clouds bloomed quietly like white lotus flowers, making the place even more outstanding.
At noon, although the sun was intense, the weather in northern Shanxi was not as sultry as in the south. Coupled with the northern wind blowing from beyond the Great Wall, it was not tiring, and even if you sweated, it would dry quickly.
📜About Yanqing Temple
Only the main hall remains, and its age is untraceable. Based on its architectural style, it is inferred to be a wooden structure from the Jin Dynasty. The roof slope is gentle, the eaves extend freely, the eaves curve beautifully, and the thick side walls taper inward, with harmonious proportions, completely exceeding my aesthetic expectations.
If it weren't for visiting Foguang Temple, who would know of its existence? It is said that the stupa inside the hall was stolen earlier, and it stopped being open to the public. When I went, new buildings had already been constructed around it, and many students from Xi'an were sketching inside.
📝Professional Knowledge
The main hall of Yanqing Temple is three bays wide, with a nearly square floor plan. It is a wooden structure with six purlins and a hip-and-gable roof. In terms of architectural style, the techniques of the eaves, intercolumnar brackets, diagonal braces, and camel hump are similar to those of the Manjusri Hall of Foguang Temple within the same region. The long purlins and the eaves brackets shaped like elephant trunks are also similar to the techniques used in the Amitabha Hall and Guanyin Hall of Chongfu Temple.
📸Recommended Highlights
The stupa from the second year of Jingyou in the Northern Song Dynasty (1035), standing on a lotus base. The upper half of the stupa was stolen by thieves in 2011;
The beast heads on the column tops of the main hall are particularly distinctive, resembling the masks used in southern Nuo opera, identical to the beast heads seen in the main hall of Guangji Temple in Wutai County.
🎫Tickets: Free, open all year round
🚖Transportation: Taxi is best, navigate to County Road 002, Wutai County, Xinzhou City
🐝Ancient Architecture Tour Route: Hongfu Temple - Yanqing Temple - Nanchan Temple - Guangji Temple - Foguang Temple
LR. Zak 36
Explore ancient temples and experience their thousand-year history!
Yanqing Temple is located in Shanwen Village, Yangbai Township, Wutai County, Shanxi Province. The exact date of its construction is unknown, but the stone inscriptions in the courtyard indicate that the temple already existed during the Tang Dynasty. It was rebuilt in the second year of the Jingyou era of the Song Dynasty and was renovated during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties. The temple was originally a three-courtyard layout, but only the third courtyard remains. The main existing building is the main hall of Yanqing Temple, a relic of the Jin Dynasty, which faces south. The main hall is three rooms wide and about 13 meters long, with a slightly square floor plan. It is a wooden structure with six rafters and a hip roof. In terms of architectural form, the methods of the head, the supplement, the oblique arch, and the camel hump are similar to those of the Wenshu Hall of the Foguang Temple in the territory. The large supporting wooden feet and the head shape of the elephant are similar to the Amitabha Hall and Guanyin Hall of the Chongfu Temple in Suxian County. The hall uses a reduced column architectural structure, which was common in the late Jin and early Ming Dynasties. It is a newly created wooden structure, that is, it saves beams and columns without affecting the stability of the building. The two column heads in the center of the main hall are decorated with animal faces, which are uniquely shaped. Some people think it looks like a dragon, while others think it looks like a pig's head. There are relics of the Northern Song Dynasty in the temple. Although some are broken, the lotus base is very exquisite. The text on it records a lot of history of Yanqing Temple and has high research value. On May 25, 2006, Yanqing Temple was listed as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. Although Yanqing Temple is not large, as a wooden building of the Jin Dynasty, it has important historical, artistic, and scientific value and is a precious example of ancient architecture research.