Glory of lost city

An exhibition of Yecheng relics recounts the development and decline of the former center of Buddhism in northern China, Lin Qi reports.

Its glorious past less well-known today, the city of Yecheng in present-day Linzhang county in North China's Hebei province, was a sacred land for Buddhists in the sixth century.

Hundreds of temples scattered in and around the planned city, once played host to a great number of eminent monks from India and across China, as well as other sutra translators and ordinary practitioners of Buddhism. On the mountains that surrounded Yecheng there were more temples and caves with Buddhist statues.