Twin Pagodas

The Twin Pagodas are on the corner of West Street in Licheng District northwest of Quanzhou. The one on the east named Zhenguo was 48.24 meters high and the one on the west named Renshou, 44.6 meters in height. They were originally built with wood and bricks, but during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), they were redone into stone in a major reconstruction.

The most impressive parts of the east and west pagodas are the bas-relief carvings around the niches of each story, between eaves and on the base, depicting warriors, lokapalas (in Hindu, supporters or guardians of the world), guardian deities, arhats (a type of Buddha), and Bodhisattvas. The artistic style is a mixture of Chinese and Indian styles.

There is a bas-relief of the legendary Monkey King on the fourth story of the west pagoda. This has caused some people to argue that the Monkey King originated in Fujian, since the novel Journey to the West was written in the 16th century, long after the pagoda was built.

The pagodas stand some two hundred meters from each other, guarding the main hall of Kaiyuan Temple behind. When looking from the top story of the pagodas, one can enjoy a delightful bird's-eye view of the whole city.

Kaiyuan Temple

The Kaiyuan Temple was first built in 686 with an area of 78,000 square meters and is as famous as the Guangji Temple in Beijing and the Lingyin Temple in Hangzhou (East China's Zhejiang Province .

The temple is highly regarded architecturally. Its main hall "the Mahavira Hall", also called the Purple Cloud Hall, has three distinguished features rarely seen in other temples: 100 heavy stone columns supporting the roof of the hall, five huge Buddha statues standing in the same hall, and, most admirably, the flying musicians carved on some of the pillars.

Inside the hall are 24 flying apsaras (water nymphs or nature fairies) carved in between the brackets. Carrying Nanyin musical instruments in their hands, they look like a cross between Oriental girls and Catholic angels, but with wings in the shape of bats (a homonym for fortune in Chinese) instead of flowing ribbons and floating clouds. The 24 figures, waiting upon the Buddha day and night, were to support the beams and to symbolize the 24 solar terms. This masterpiece ingeniously embodies the harmonious unity of mechanics, aesthetics, and Buddhism .

Inside the temple are also many images of human figures, animals, and other patterns carved on the stone foundations, all vividly reflecting the harmonious blend of Chinese culture and arts with those of the West.

To the east of Mahavira Hall is the Hall of Quanzhou Ancient Boat Relics.

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