Although Shaanxi has many ancient towers, this one is the easiest to overlook

Starting from Weinan, we drove all the way to Hancheng. We made a special detour to Xiagui Town just to visit an ancient tower—the Huizhao Temple Tower. Xiagui Town, like many towns and villages in China, looks quite desolate, with no bustling market atmosphere at all. You can hardly see any pedestrians on the road, and most of the households in the town have their doors closed, which is probably a stark contrast to the prosperity of a thousand years ago. · Huizhao Temple is quite easy to find, standing in a prominent position in the town. However, most of the temple buildings are newly built, with a scale different from that of the town, looking magnificent. But inside, there are no pilgrims or monks, making it exceptionally quiet. The Huizhao Temple Tower we wanted to visit, along with the Buddha Hall under the tower, is hidden behind the newly built main hall, so low-key that it feels like a completely different world. · According to the 'Reconstruction Record of Huizhao Temple Tower in Xiagui Town,' the Huizhao Temple Tower was first built in the second year of Xianping during the reign of Emperor Zhenzong of the Song Dynasty (999). It was intermittently constructed for nearly three hundred years and was completed during the Taiding period of the Yuan Dynasty (1323-1328). It was destroyed in the 'Huazhou Earthquake' in the thirty-fourth year of the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty (1555) and was rebuilt from the ninth to the twelfth year of the Wanli period (1581-1584). Therefore, the Huizhao Temple Tower we see today should accurately be considered a Ming Dynasty tower. · At first glance, the Huizhao Temple Tower is very tall, with an introduced height of 36 meters. Although it does not stand out next to the newly built main hall, it would definitely be considered a typical 'high tower rising from the ground' in ancient times. The Huizhao Temple Tower has nine floors, with each side of the tower body made to resemble a three-bay wooden structure, with brick hidden columns supporting small eaves and dougong brackets. The tower top is a flat brick spire with a copper finial in the shape of a vase, which was once missing but has been restored through repairs. · The south side of the ground floor has an arched door, with each corner of the tower wall supporting a stone-carved Vajra warrior. From the second floor upwards, each side has an arched window in the central bay, with overlapping eaves and dentils between the floors. The lintel of the ground floor door is carved with two dragons playing with a pearl and auspicious beasts like a qilin, with a couplet in regular script on stone carvings on both sides: 'Clouds protect the heavens, teaching the image, and the dragon coils for ten thousand kalpas, establishing the imperial map.' On the east side of the door, embedded in the wall, is a stone tablet from the ninth year of the Wanli period, recording the reconstruction of the Huizhao Temple Tower. When walking around the tower, you can take a closer look at the inscriptions on both sides of the lintel, which are also interesting. · The Buddha Hall under the tower was rebuilt during the Republic of China period, with a five-bay hard mountain style. Although the exterior is overly low-key, according to the introduction, the five bronze statues inside have an extraordinary origin. They are all Ming Dynasty bronze Buddhas, about 2 meters high, sitting on lotus platforms. Perhaps due to the dim lighting inside the hall, the five bronze Buddhas inside and the photos of the original five bronze Buddhas posted outside look quite different. It is unclear whether the ones inside the hall are the originals. · Climbing up the newly built monk quarters next to it, we unexpectedly discovered a church outside the wall, which looks quite historical. However, we couldn't find any related introduction, so we don't know whether it is an old building or a new one. · 🏠Name | Huizhao Temple Tower 🎫Tickets | Free ⛳Address | Xiagui Town, Linwei District, Weinan City 🚗Transportation | Self-drive navigation to 'Huizhao Temple' will do