The Liaodi Pagoda of the Kaiyuan Monastery is the tallest surviving pre-modern pagoda in China, rising 84 metres above the surrounding plain and completed in 1055 during the Northern Song dynasty. It is also the tallest brick pagoda ever built, a record that stands after nearly a thousand years. The scale is genuinely astonishing when you stand beside it: the structure tapers through eleven fully accessible storeys, each one giving onto an exterior balcony from which the patchwork farmland and distant Taihang foothills are visible in every direction.
Construction began in 1001 and took more than half a century to complete. The pagoda belongs to the so-called "hollow pavilion" style, meaning each storey is a full interior room rather than a mere platform, and the internal staircase winds through all of them. The exterior surface is decorated with brick relief figures and ornamental brackets, the craftsmanship more restrained than the flamboyant pagodas of southern China, which suits its dual devotional and defensive character. Climbing it on a clear morning, before the tour coaches arrive, is one of the better pagoda experiences in northern China.
The surrounding grounds of the Kaiyuan Monastery have been rebuilt at various times and the other structures lack the accumulated authenticity of the pagoda itself. But the complex is well maintained, entry is inexpensive, and the pagoda alone justifies the stop.