Millennium wooden miracle: Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple in Shanxi

Standing tall in the ancient town of Yingxian county in northern China's Shanxi province, the Sakyamuni Pagoda of Fogong Temple, commonly known as the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, has withstood natural disasters and the passage of time for nearly a millennium.

As the world's tallest and oldest surviving pure wooden pavilion-style pagoda, it ranks among the world's three great architectural wonders, alongside Italy's Leaning Tower of Pisa and France's Eiffel Tower. Built entirely with wooden mortise-and-tenon joints and without a single nail, this iconic Liao Dynasty (916-1125) masterpiece represents the pinnacle of ancient Chinese wooden architecture and a timeless miracle in global architectural history.

Constructed in 1056 during the Liao Dynasty and renovated in 1195 during the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234), the approximately 970-year-old pagoda stands 65.84 meters tall, with a base diameter of 30.27 m and a total weight of over 7,400 tons. Resting on a four-meter stone foundation, it features a unique architectural layout comprising five visible floors and four hidden layers, totaling nine stories. Its regular octagonal shape and layered eaves embody the grand and simple aesthetic characteristics of ancient architecture in northern China, combining rigorous structural design with profound cultural significance.