Beisi Pagoda of Bao'en Temple in Suzhou, where history and tradition collide!

⛰【Travel Tips】 📍Detailed Address: Beisi Bao'en Temple 🚗Transportation Tips: Direct access via Subway Line 4, or you can scan to rent a shared bike, with parking available at the entrance! 🕙Opening Hours: 8:30～17:00 💰Ticket Price: Free 🌟Highlights: Beisi Bao'en Temple, located at No. 1918 Renmin Road, Gusu District, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, is the oldest temple in Suzhou with a history of over 1700 years. It was originally built during the Sun Quan's Chiwu period (238—251 AD) as Tongxuan Temple, according to historical records, for his wet nurse Lady Chen. It was renamed Kaiyuan Temple in the early Tang Dynasty and later changed to Bao'en Temple. On May 25, 2006, the Bao'en Temple Pagoda was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the sixth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. 👍Most Recommended: The Bao'en Temple Pagoda is a nine-story, eight-sided brick body with a wooden eaves mixed structure, standing 76 meters tall and covering an area of 878 square meters; the interior of the pagoda consists of a double-layered sleeve with a square core chamber on each floor of the octagonal pagoda heart, and wooden stairs are set in the corridors between the double sleeves; Bao'en Temple Pagoda is a typical example among more than 2000 Chinese pavilion-style pagodas with 'commanding heights above and heavy buildings below', and the brick-built bucket arches and other imitation wood decorations above the doors of each floor's passageways and the core chamber are complex in structure, serving as a case study for the Song Dynasty's small woodwork forms. 📝Note tips: Friendly reminder, be sure to walk around the pagoda, clockwise, three times. Do not go in the wrong direction! 🌟Highlights: The Nanmu Guanyin Hall, rebuilt in the fortieth year of the Ming Wanli era, is located to the east of the North Pagoda and is the most intact ancient Ming Dynasty building in Suzhou. A long corridor is built to the south of the Guanyin Hall, displaying the largest giant lacquer carving in China, 'Prosperous Age Fostering Life', also known as 'Prosperity of Gusu'. The carving is 32 meters long and 2 meters high, recreating the prosperity of Suzhou during the 'Qianlong Prosperous Age' of the Qing Dynasty. Behind the pagoda, there is a rare Yuan Dynasty stone carving, the Zhang Shicheng Merit Stele, in the stele pavilion, which has extremely high historical and artistic value. ✅Must Experience: The temple houses Yuan Dynasty relics: the Zhang Shicheng Merit Stele, which was listed as a cultural relic protection unit of Jiangsu Province in 1957. The Zhang Shicheng Merit Stele, also known as the Lingping Statue Stele, Zhang Wu King Merit Portrait Stone Carving, or Bao'en Temple Stone Kan Statue, commonly referred to as the Stone Family Hall. Originally located to the left of the Bao'en Temple's mountain gate, it was moved inside the temple in 19l9, and a stele pavilion was built in 1924. In 1985, it was rebuilt into a square pavilion with stone pillars and wooden beams with a pointed top, and in 1987, a wooden fence was added around the stele. The stele is 3.06 meters high, 1.46 meters wide, and 0.4 meters thick, made of bluestone. The images from top to bottom can be divided into four sections. According to 'Wumen Biaoyin', the stele was placed by Shen Wansan, a wealthy man from the south of the Yangtze River at the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Modern scholars such as Jin Songcen have conducted research on the crown, clothing, and utensils in the picture, determining that it was carved in the Yuan Dynasty and depicting the scene of Zhang Shicheng welcoming the Yuan envoy Bayan in the nineteenth year of Zhi Zheng. 📝Note tips: Learn a bit about the historical relics in advance, and your trip will be even more fulfilling!