The Suspended Temple, known in Chinese as Xuankong Si, is an hour's drive from Datong in North China's Shanxi Province. It was built half way up mountainous cliffs about 1,400 years ago. Unlike many other temples, here Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism have been worshipped together in the same hall, showing the great harmony between these belief systems. Its name Xuankong shows this. Xuan in Chinese means mystery, in Daoism, it means Dark Learning. And "Kong" means emptiness also gives the essence of Buddhism, which is everything is emptiness.

The Temple is located in a canyon at the foot of the Hengshan Mountain. Hanging in mid-air, the pagoda is a rarity in terms of architecture. It was built on the cliffs at Jinlong Pass with its 40 halls, towers and pavilions supported with flying beams inserted into the cliffs and wooden pillars and connected by winding corridors. The whole structure seems to dangle by a thread at the edge of an abyss.

It is an awesome architectural achievement. The temple is hanging in the mid air some 50 meters from the ground, away from the threat of floods which frequented the valley. A giant piece of rock was sticking out right on top of the temple, shading it from the Sun's heat and rains erosion. The Temple is only exposed to the Sunshine for only 3 hours everyday. This also constitutes one reason the wood-structured building could be kept intact after all these years.

The beams and pillars are made from very hard local wood species. They've been soaked in oil before use and thus becomes very strong and can endure the test of rain and ants. The weight of the temple was more on the flying wood beams than on the pillars. Some of the pillars under the temple only works when there's weight. Some was there only for balancing purposes.

The halls are also well-designed, making good use of the cliff's natural shape. Most halls are not very big, with the statues also smaller. But the main hall, The Sanguan Hall are very spacious, dug into the cliff from inside. Within the temple are numerous pictures and 78 color statues made of copper, iron or stone.

One might wonder why on earth it was built on the cliff? Well, the path under the temple was once a very important transportation road at the time. The temple's location would be convienient for travelers on the road to stop for a while and did their praying. Also there's a river flowing under the temple and there've been heavy rain and floods. People thought it might be the work of certain mischievous dragon and wished to build a pagoda to control the dragon.

The magnificence of the temple was quite often marveled all through the years. There on the cliff inscribed four characters, meaning "Only great architects like Gongshu Ban could do such a superb work". Gongshu Ban was an architect living some 2000 years ago and was considered the father of architects in China. But the temple was of course not built by him.

The Modair Pagoda

Though repaired several times, the temple's structure is now probably facing its biggest test ever, with an influx of tourists brought to the valley by modern transportation.