悬空寺 — Attraction in Datong

One of the highlights of our trip, this Suspended Temple was built on the walls of sheer cliffs in AD577 and one of the oldest Buddhist temples in the country and well preserved through limiting the number of visitors. Instead of only reviewing the place, I wish to share with you the hack we learnt, in order to fully enjoy the experience of ascending the temple.

To ascend the temple, you need two tickets comprising of a RMB15 entrance ticket and a RMB100 ascension ticket. The latter is very difficult to get as they limit both the total numbers of visitors per day who wish to ascend up to the cliff into the temple and also the number of people allowed inside the temple at any one time (80 pax).

On a lot of social media, the recommended strategy is to grab the ascension tickets as they come online or stand in the queue before 7.30am for the first tickets released for the day. Or claim that you lost your ticket and give RMB100 to the gatekeeper (wink wink). Still there is no guarantee of success and many faced disappointment coming here and finally not able to ascend to the temple. For those who are successful, you will still face long queues waiting for their turn to ascend regardless weekend or weekday. There is a better way.

Tickets are released online 4 days before at midnight. Grab them. On actual day, enter the temple gates just before 6pm (during summer time). No one cares how long you stay, you can remain until the next day, said the grounds keeper. At that hour, there are very few visitors and you can take ample beautiful pictures to your hearts content with no accidental photo bombers.

We stayed till 7.30pm and then happily left the temple, feeling blessed that we managed to ascend the temple and yet missed...

悬空寺 The Hanging Temple, also Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery or Xuankong Temple is a temple built into a cliff near Mount Heng in Hunyuan County, Datong City, Shanxi Province, 🇨🇳 China. The closest city is Datong, 64 kilometres to the northwest. Built more than 1,500 years ago, The Hanging Temple is also known by other names like Hengshan Hanging Temple, Hanging Monastery, or Xuankong Temple Not only is its placement unique, it is also one of the only temples in the world that is dedicated to more than one religion, combining teachings of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. After all, when you're literally hanging from the side of a cliff, you probably need the help of more than just one god! The temple is said to have been built by a monk named Liao Ran during the late Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534 A.D.) and restored in 1900. It was constructed by drilling holes into the cliffside into which the poles that hold up the temples are set. There are about 40 halls with 80 sculptures, which are vividly carved from copper, iron, terracotta and stone. The monastery is, one of the five most sacred mountains in China UNESCO-listed visit to be amazed by its elaborate design and unique architecture.

Hanging Temple opens to the public from 8:00-18:00 in summer and 8:00-17:30 in winter. The ticket price is 130 RMB (22 USD) in peak season and 120 RMB (20 USD) in low season. Pre booking...

**IMPORTANT FOR FOREIGNERS Do not directly go to the hanging temple. Go to the hengshan visitor centre to buy tickets (1x entrance ticket and 1x shuttle bus ticket) to visit the hanging temple. Foreigners cannot buy tickets in advance (unless you book a tour which is very expensive imo)

The shuttle bus ticket can also be used to go to two other hiking trail areas, though i did not try going there

From datong, it took about 2 hours to arrive by taxi. We arrived at the visitor centre at 8am and arrived at the temple at 8:30am and the queue was already 30min long to enter. By 9am, the queue was 1h long

The temple was quite cool, but it's always very crowded and is quite small, so please take note of that before visiting. Imo yungang grottoes hanging temple, so if you only have one day in Datong, I would recommend visitingyungang...