This isolated pagoda, which stands alone, is an unexpected glimpse of Mongolian history. It lies just beyond a small rural village, Taipingzhuang, but used to be in the center of an ancient town, Fengzhou, which no longer exists. In antiquity, the town was the focus of a large thriving horse market.
Rumor has it that Genghis Khan came here to look for steeds, and perhaps bought some of his famous horses here. The Mongolian Grasslands are not far away and we can imagine Genghis Khan and his army of wild riders thundering away from here.
The pagoda, about 17km east of Hohhot, beyond the modern airport, is quite difficult to reach so we went on a half-day tour in a mini-van, with a driver familiar to the area.
Just past the airport the road changes from wide tar highway to a dusty track, then a narrow strip of tar hardly wide enough for two vehicles, but with a dangerous mix of vehicles on it and plenty of reckless driving. It bumps through a village, which has a very poor, rural feel to it: small, broken-down houses; small shops set up just beyond the sand at the edge of the tar; lots of broken, rusted vehicles; many more bicycles; dirty drains; stagnant pools of water covered with algae; an amazing amount of litter next to the road.
So much for unspoilt wilderness.
The pagoda is in a garden setting in a walled complex just past the village. It was originally known as The Ten Thousand Avatamska Sutras Temple because it had many inscriptions about Buddha inside on the walls, written in the languages of many minority ethnic groups, including Old Mongolian, Sanscrit, Khitan, Nuchen, Turki, and old Syriac.
The attractive wood and brick construction, a 7-storey octagonal pagoda, which towers more than 55m over the nearby maize, wheat and potatoes fields, is very old (it was started in the 10th century in the Liao Dynasty) and has been restored in recent years. The whitewash outside gives it the white color and its nickname. Interesting carvings of coiling dragons, birds and flowers cover the outside.
We climbed steep wooden steps outside to a door on the third level. Inside was pitch dark, as there are no windows, so without a torch you can’t even shuffle around the one circular passage. One Japanese girl in our party had a torch, so we did shuffle around but couldn’t actually see anything, although there are supposedly Buddhist statues lining the walls. The Japanese girl, an Australian lady (Ann), and the guide went up the dark stairs to the top of the pagoda. Ann said there was a small shrine up top, and a bit of a view out. But those three didn’t rave about the view like the guidebook does!
We looked in the small Exhibition Hall in a building complex next door (locked as very few tourists come here, so we had to call the groundskeeper), which has information on the restoration work, the design of the pagoda, plus some of the original sculptures (notably 2 dragons) and copies of some of the Buddhist writings that were on the walls. None of the exhibits were in English, so it was a bit hard to understand.
We wandered through an interesting pergola made by squash vines, festooned with many different types of squash and gourds and past the extensive vegetable gardens surrounding the pagoda. The guide told us the squashes on the pergola are just for decoration and not for selling at market (like the vegetables are—other squash, pumpkins, leafy greens). The smell of colorful summer flowers and the sight of gourds dangling in the arbors are nearly as good a reason to visit this out-of-the-way pagoda as the lure of the Mongol legends.
Open daily 8-6pm. Yuan 5, and an extra Yuan 5 to climb the tower.
Our half-day tour was combined with the inevitable visit to a cashmere shop back in Hohhot city. Cashmere production is part of the economy here. It’s lovely but very expensive so I didn’t succumb to its lure, but some members of the party did!
