Daming Temple and Jianzheng Pagoda

Daming Temple stands on a low wooded hill north of Slender West Lake and is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Jiangsu. Founded in the 5th century and repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, the present complex dates mainly to the 20th century — it was damaged during the Taiping Rebellion and again during the Cultural Revolution — but the setting is ancient and the site feels genuinely sacred rather than merely touristic.

The nine-storey Qiling Pagoda, built in 1980 in the Tang style, offers elevated views over the whole northern part of the city and the lake below. The Jianzheng Memorial Hall commemorates the abbot who departed from this temple for Japan in the 8th century — the relationship between Yangzhou and Japan has been warm ever since, and Japanese tourists make particular efforts to visit. The temple grounds are large enough to wander for an hour without retracing your steps.

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A story
The monk Jianzhen left Daming Temple in 742 AD attempting to travel to Japan at the invitation of the Japanese emperor to teach Buddhist precepts. He failed five times — shipwrecked, detained, temporarily blinded — and finally reached Japan on his sixth attempt in 753, at the age of 66. He spent the remaining decade of his life in Japan, where he is revered as one of the founders of Japanese Buddhism, and his likeness is still kept in the temple that bears his name in Nara.

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