The Big Wild Goose Pagoda, Xi'an

The Big Wild Goose Pagoda stands in the grounds of Da Ci'en Temple in southern Xi'an, a square brick tower of seven storeys that tapers as it rises. It was built in the Tang period to hold the sutras and relics that the monk Xuanzang brought back from India, and he worked on translating them here. The brickwork is plain and the form austere compared with the ornamented pagodas of later centuries, which is much of its interest. You can climb the internal wooden stairs for a view over the temple roofs and the surrounding blocks. The monastery around it is active, with incense, chanting and monks going about their day.

History

In 652 the monk Xuanzang oversaw the building of a pagoda at the Da Ci'en Temple in the Tang capital Chang'an to keep the hundreds of Sanskrit scriptures he had brought back from India. The first five-storey tower of brick over an earth core soon decayed, and Empress Wu Zetian and the nobles paid for a new seven-storey one; the governor An Chongba repaired it in 930-933, giving it its present form, and in 1604 it was clad in a new layer of brick some 60 centimetres thick. Over-pumping of groundwater made it lean faster from 1945 until the tilt reached about a metre in 1996, when more than 400 nearby wells were sealed, and in 2014 it was inscribed with the Small Wild Goose Pagoda as part of the Silk Roads World Heritage Site (Wikipedia, Giant Wild Goose Pagoda).

What to look for

• The pagoda itself - seven storeys of plain Tang brickwork, climbable by a narrow internal stair.
• Da Ci'en Temple - the working monastery around the base, with halls, incense and chanting.
• The steles and reliefs - carved stone tablets recording the sutra journey and the pagoda's founding.
• The north square - the wide plaza below, with fountains that run to an evening timetable.

When to go

Spring and autumn. The temple opens early and is calmest in the first hour; by afternoon the north square fills with tour groups waiting for the fountain show. The pagoda climb needs a separate ticket and the stairwell gets congested at weekends. Winter is cold but quiet, and the brick looks better without summer haze.

What to expect

The climb is a series of steep, dark wooden stairs with a queue in both directions and a view that is mostly modern city. The temple sits inside a heavily commercialised district of malls, statues and a musical fountain, which drains the atmosphere considerably. Two separate tickets are needed, and incense smoke inside the halls is thick enough to sting.

Nearby

The Shaanxi History Museum, the Small Wild Goose Pagoda and the city wall are all within a short ride.

Key facts