Exploring Shanxi’s secrets: temples, natural beauty and Unesco ancient city of Pingyao

We visit Qinyuan county in China’s northern Shanxi province, an area being established as a green county full of nature tourism opportunities

Meanwhile the province’s city of Pingyao, a Unesco World Heritage Site once known as ‘China’s Wall Street’, offers a peak into the country’s financial past

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A temple building fixed to the cliff face at Shengshou Temple in Qinyuan county, Shanxi province. Photo: Martin Williams

Published: 1:08pm, 1 Oct 2019Updated: 8:59pm, 2 Oct 2019

Though its setting is unusual – nestled in a forested ravine, deep within Shanxi province – Shengshou Temple resembles many temple complexes I have visited in China.

There are buildings with brick walls, topped with curved, tiled roofs. Doorways lead into six courtyards. The temple is well looked after, though there are few signs of religious activity. Perhaps a grey-haired woman who walks by is one of the acolytes, attending to nuns or monks who are somewhere out of sight, and putting out fruit that attracts squirrels to outdoor altars.

At the back of the temple is a cliff where steps lead to a cluster of buildings, arrayed in three tiers so they fit snugly in a rocky recess. The topmost main building is the size of a log cabin, and has wooden walls on a brick foundation, with timber poles as supports, securely fixed into the cliff face. Painted mostly maroon, with green and gold decorative patterns, these are the most intriguing of the temple buildings.

They are like a smaller version of the popular Hanging Temple near the city of Datong, which lies around 400 kilometres (250 miles) to the north and was likewise built on a cliff, around 1,500 years ago. Perhaps Shengshou Temple was originally an offshoot of the Hanging Temple, albeit much younger; Huo Siyu, who works for the local forestry bureau, tells me it was built in 1709, and repaired in 1933. But while the Hanging Temple is well known, very little information can be found on Shengshou Temple.

Typical of temples in China nowadays, Shengshou is kept more as a tourist attraction than for religion. Yet by midmorning there are barely a handful of visitors. One reason may be access: the main route is via steep flights of steps down from a car park 15 minutes’ walk away. It is also tucked away in Qinyuan county, which seems little known even by people in other parts of Shanxi.