China Guide
The Yellow River
The Hanging Temple
Opening time: Daily 7am–6pm
Price: ¥60
Address: On the valley road that runs up to Heng Shan, about 80km southeast of Datong, near the town of Hunyuan
Clinging to the side of a sheer cliff face, the Hanging Temple (its name literally translates as "Temple Suspended in the Void") is anchored by wooden beams set into the rock. There's been a temple on this site since the Northern Wei, though the buildings were periodically destroyed by the flooding of the Heng River (now no longer there, thanks to a dam upstream), occasioning the temple to be rebuilt higher and higher each time. What with souvenir stalls and a terraced garden below, the temple is a little disappointing at first, but it's a great deal more atmospheric once you're inside the rickety, claustrophobic structure. Tall, narrow stairs and plank walkways connect the six halls – natural caves and ledges with wooden facades – in which shrines exist to Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism, all of whose major figures are represented in nearly eighty statues in the complex, made from bronze, iron and stone.