This temple originally dates from AD 540 but was destroyed in 1966, the first year of the Cultural Revolution.
Little remains apart from a Bell Tower and its drawcard dirt-brown Xūmí Pagoda (须弥塔, Xūmí Tǎ). Dating from 636AD, this well-preserved and unfussy, nine-eaved structure, is topped with a spire. Its round arched doors and carved stone doorway are particularly attractive, as are the carved figures on the base. You can enter a shrine at the bottom of the pagoda, but you can't climb up inside.
Also displayed, near the entrance, is a colossal stone bìxì – China’s largest – with a vast chunk of its left flank missing (as well as the stele it would have once carried), and its head propped up on a plinth. Dating from the late Tang era, the creature was excavated in 2000 from a street in Zhèngdìng.
