Sights in Zhāngyè
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Wooden Pagoda
In the main square one block north of the Great Buddha Temple, this pagoda is a brick and wooden structure that was first built in AD 528. Note that this pagoda represents wood as the earth stupa represents earth in the Chinese theory of the five elements (wood, earth, water, fire and metal).
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Great Buddha Temple
Originally dating to 1098 (Western Xia dynasty), this excellent temple contains an astonishing 35m-long sleeping Buddha – China's largest of this variety – surrounded by mouldering clay arhats and Qing-dynasty murals. Take a good look at the main hall and the woodwork, including the doors – it's one of the few wooden structures from this era still standing in China. A colony of bats squeaks high up in its rafters along with flitting flocks of swallows. Until the 1960s, small children would clamber into the huge Buddha and play around inside his tummy. The stairs to the floor above are, sadly, inaccessible. Out the back is the impressive white earth stupa (土塔; tǔ…
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