James Baquet

    jamesbaquet@gmail.com

    I TOOK an expensive taxi for 20 kilometers from Shijiazhuang to Zhengding. With city walls dating back to 352, Zhengding had been an important religious and administrative center for over 1,000 years.

    There are two important schools of Chan (Zen) Buddhism: the Linji (or Rinzai) and the Caodong (or Soto). The founder of the Linji school was Linji Yixuan, and his modest pagoda, first built in 867, still stands in Zhengding. After circumambulating it, I set out to find three other pagodas I had learned of online.

    Not far south of Linji Temple is the so-called “Flowery Pagoda” of Guanghui Temple. Dating to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), its name refers to the ornaments on its tower. Although they are actually animals, from a distance they resemble a column of flowers.

    After seeing the town’s reconstructed South Gate, I took a cab for the two kilometers to Lingxiao Pagoda at Tianning Temple. Originally built in 860 during the Tang Dynasty, its top floors are made of wood.

    Finally, I walked to Xumi Pagoda at Kaiyuan Monastery’s Xumi Pagoda. Like Xumifushou Temple in Chengde, it is named for the mythical Mount Sumeru. Built in 636, it looks more like the pagodas in Xi’an, the Tang capital, than any of the others.

    Another taxi back to my hotel, and bags in hand I went to the train station for my trip to Beijing, where I would have to layover on my way to Qingdao. But a year later, I would return to Zhengding.