Atlas of China
Nanchan Temple 南禅寺Nánchán Sì
National heritage site · Xinzhou, Shanxi
- Time needed
- 1 hour
- Days to budget
- Half a day
- City
- Xinzhou
- Region
- Shanxi
- Type
- Heritage
- Listed as
- National heritage site
About Nanchan Temple
A small temple whose main hall, dated by a beam inscription to 782, is the oldest surviving timber building in China. The three-bay hall has no interior columns or ceiling and holds a group of painted clay statues of the Tang period on a U-shaped altar. Architectural historians found the hall in 1953 and it was listed as a national monument in 1961.
How to get to Nanchan Temple
In Lijiazhuang village, Yangbai township, about 12 km west of Wutai county seat.
Nearby
- Foguang Temple 佛光寺 30 km
A Tang timber hall of 857 on a quiet hillside, still filled with its Tang clay statues - Mount Wutai 五台山 50 km
Temples, a towering white stupa and yellow-tiled roofs below five flat-topped holy peaks - Yanmen Pass 雁门关 60 km
A Ming fortress gate on the Inner Great Wall, its ramparts running up the mountain ridges
Also within 20 km: Yanqing Temple 延庆寺 (under 10 km), Former Residence of Xu Xiangqian 徐向前故居 (under 10 km), Hongfu Temple, Beishe 洪福寺 (under 10 km), Guangji Temple, Wutai 五台广济寺 (10 km), Former Residence of Yan Xishan, Hebian 阎家大院 (10 km).
On the map
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