The curved profile
Like a bullet.
Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Siyuwj — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gary Todd — CC0 · Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Windmemories — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gary Todd from Xinzheng, China — CC0 · Siyuwj — CC BY-SA 4.0
China's oldest surviving brick pagoda, built in 523 under the Northern Wei dynasty and one of the few sixth-century pagodas still intact; it stands among cypresses at the foot of Mount Song north of Dengfeng, and in 2010 it was inscribed on the World Heritage List among the Dengfeng monuments. The pagoda rises 40 metres in yellowish brick bound with clay and is unique for its twelve sides; above its tall first storey sit fifteen closely spaced roofs with eaves and small windows, giving it from a distance a graceful, bullet-like curve, and visitors reach it up a stairway through the trees. It is covered by a combined ticket of about CNY 80 with Songyang Academy, Taishi Mountain and two temples, and the site is open from 8 am to 5.30 pm, per visitor guides.
Like a bullet.
Close-set.
Through the cypresses.
Foot of Mount Taishi, north of Dengfeng
It is China's oldest surviving brick pagoda, from 523, and unique among Chinese pagodas for its twelve sides and its distinctive curved profile.