| Beijing Attractions
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Yinshan Pagoda Forest at Changping of Beijing
| Located thirty kilometers northeast of Changping District, the pagoda forest stands on the old site of the ancient Yanshou Temple on the southern slope of Yinshan (Silver) Hill near Haizi Village. During the Liao and Kin dynasties many Buddhist temples were built around Yinshan. It is said that there were as many as seventy-two temples at one time, Yanshou, also called Fahua Temple, built in 1125, the grandest of all. The pagoda forest was actually the cemetery of the monks of the temple.
| | Today only seven pagodas still stand, five built during the Kin Dynasty and two during the Yuan Dynasty. All five Kin Dynasty pagodas are multi-eaved brick structures on huge Sumeru platforms. The platforms and the first storey of the pagodas are covered by beautiful relief carvings. Under the eaves are brick brackets. From the first storey on up, short eaves, close together, are spaced at between twenty and thirty meters, resembling ordinary pagodas rather than tomb pagodas. The two Yuan Dynasty pagodas are smaller, but each has its own characteristics. One is a multi-eaved pagoda with brick brackets under the eaves. Its inward-curving lines give it a special elegance. The other is a combination of multi-eaved and inverted-bowl styles. It fills a special position in the architectural art of Buddhist pagodas dating to the Kin and Yuan dynasties in the Beijing area. |
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