The Hanging Temple

The Hanging Temple is located behind Hengshan Mountain, 64 kilometers south east of the city of Datong. It traces back to 1600 years ago, the building process began at the time of Northern Wei Dynasty. According to the history of Hengshan Mountain, the whole construction started by only one person, a monk named Liao Ran. This temple is notable as the only surviving temple combining all three Chinese traditional religions/philosophies: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. There are 250 caves here containing many thousands of carvings and statues. The structure is kept in place with oak crossbeams slotted into holes chiseled into the cliffs. The main supportive structure is hidden inside the rock. The temple is located in a small canyon basin, under a prominent summit that helps protect the temple from rain and sunlight. When stepping into the temple, you can smell ancient feelings from the old woods. Especially it really needs some guts to climb some very narrow wooden stairs.