Wondrous delights in NW Shanxi
Rare visit to Hanging temple, village, and coffins bring three mysterious sights in one day, as
North China’s Shanxi province has plenty of wonderful sites and sights, but three particularly unusual ancient relics and strange bits of architecture that have been around for hundreds of years are a cliff temple, hanging coffins, and a village built on the face of a cliff in the Luya Mountain Scenic Area of Ningwu county, that can all be visited within a day.
The three are a great choice, even compared to the rest of the delights the country has to offer and are located on a somewhat remote mountain but have good access.
They’re within an hour’s drive, about 30 kilometers, of downtown Ningwu and 180 km to the northwest of the city of Taiyuan, the provincial capital.
That drive from Taiyuan is itself interesting as it takes you through small towns and villages through some undulating countryside cut with steep ravines in the loess soil and endless fields of green planted with corn and other vegetables growing on plots of varying sizes.
The hanging temple was built with the help of an interestingly ingenious plank road no more than 2 meters wide that dates back to the Zhenyuan period (785-805) of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), a prosperous and fer vent period for Chinese Buddhism. It was constructed out of wooden poles inser ted into bore holes in the practically vertical cliff then covered with wooden planks, more than 100 meters above the ground.
It ran for more than 21 km in the olden days, and connected a number of temples and pagodas, the locals told us, but few of those temples and pagodas remain today.
There is, however, a unique one built into a cave on the cliff, during the Tang dynasty, supported by wooden pilings.
It took members of our group more than 20 minutes to climb the steep steps to the hanging temple, which has two floors.
It gained its name from its location and, interestingly enough, the temple is not only for Buddhists but also for devotees of Confucius, making it somewhat of a rarity. The simple local folks worship different gods in hopes of improving their lives.
There is a similar but more famous temple in Hunyuan county, about 180 km to the north of Ningwu, which was built in Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534). But, during the popular season it sees many tourists flocking there and making the stairway, which is narrow, exceedingly crowded.
This temple in Ningwu, which is less known, provides an opportunity to enjoy the temple view in a much more relaxed way even if it can be somewhat unnerving for some to be up there on the narrow cliff face.
The temples got their name, xuan kong si, because of a dream the emperor had of having a temple up in the clouds, with the added benefit that it can represent the heavenly, noble thoughts contained in the sutras.
Curious burial site
Perhaps an even more unusual sight is the number of hanging coffins at some 200 sites, making them a standout in China in terms of their numbers.
They also rank high as antiquities because of the variety of positions — some are in a cave; but others hung there on the cliff face supported by wooden poles or secured by lines.
Archaeologists have put forth many possible explanations for these curious coffins, one of which is related to the particular geological location.
Ningwu was a hotly contested site with many battles for hundreds of years, involving government armies, invaders, rebels, or other ethnic groups, and many soldiers lost their lives. To preserve them, their fellow soldiers suspended them up on the cliff.
Also, for strategic reasons, a hanging village was built in the area at the end of the Ming Dynasty (13681644).
It is about 30 km from Ningwu Pass, the last pass before entering the Chinese capital, Beijing, during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368-1911). When a rebel leader, Li Zicheng, took the Ningwu Pass from the Chongzhen emperor (1628-1644) of the Ming, dethroning him, the emperor sought to save his fourth son by hiding him in a temple in the remote mountain area, while searching for a way and a chance to re-take the strategic pass.
The soldiers who were assigned to protect the son and the area, which is about 2,300 meters above sea level, all changed their family names to wang and the village got the name Wanghua. Unfortunately, the father committed suicide and the son died only a few years later out of grief, but the village stayed on the remote mountain.
It was a bit hard to find and, even after the founding of the Ne w C hina, government leaders still considered the remote mountain area a difficult place to locate so they used it as an arsenal, although that’s long abandoned.
One 69-year-old villager, Wang Runquan, told China Daily that he’s been delighted to see more tourists in the area in recent years and the local government doesn’t impose taxes on them if they open teahouses or restaurants to serve the visitors.
At the same time, sadly, many of the 160 villagers who previously lived there migrated to cities looking for a better life, leaving behind mostly elderly people amounting to not much more than 20 and the youngest of them is above 40.
Wang said: “Most of the houses are empty and the land is overgrown with weeds, so it’s really fortunate to see a growing number of tourists. They like the village’s history, the mystery of the nearby coffins and the rarely seen hanging temple, and it’s a great place for them to stay, here in our simple village.”
Sun Ruisheng, Yang Cheng Roger Bradshaw Visitors like the village’s history, the mystery of the nearby coffins and the rarely seen hanging temple.”
Wang Runquan, a 69-year-old villager in the Hanging Village in Luya Mountain, Ningwu county, Shanxi province the length of the remaining Great Wall in Pianguan county, Shanxi province
Contact the writers at sunruisheng@chinadaily.com.cn and yangcheng@chinadaily.com.cn
The county, which administers the village, has some 500 kilometers of the remaining Great Wall, built during the Kingdom Zhao period (403222BC), Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC), Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) and Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) with 49 castellated towers and out of them 29 are well preserved. There are also some 1,000 other towers, making good use of a variety of Pianguan materials such as stones, bricks, and rammed earth, giving it a certain prominence in the country, according to the association.
And the bay gives visitors a rare opportunity to examine how several lines of the Great Wall come together. The wall generally employs several lines with the farthest out being built as the first line of defense while others protect the interior, so, as Dong goes on to say, “All these indicate that Old Cow Bay and Piansguan county have serious historical value.”
He Jiao, an Old Cow Bay Administration official, explained that in recent years, more tourists have made this a starting point for a grand walking trip along the Great Wall, and, he continues, “They can average about 25 kilometers a day and take 36 days in all to reach Beijing.”
He has worked for the administration for six years now and says that the tourists are growing in awareness of the need to protect the Great Wall and that some of the Wall’s remaining sites have undergone renovation, but concludes by saying that some scientists are of the opinion that “maintaining them as they are now is the best way to preserve them”.
Pianguan county’s head official, Qu Jun’an, told China Daily that the area is just one part of China’s vast loess plateau and more greenery is really the a key to preserving not just North China’s environment but the ancient Great Wall as well.
To make sure that this happens, Qu notes, county records show that, for the 2011-15 period, they increased the amount of forest coverage by planting 3,333 hectares of trees every year.