Fengguo Temple, located in Yixian County about sixty kilometres south of Jinzhou city, is one of the finest surviving examples of Liao Dynasty wooden architecture and one of the most important ancient buildings in China. The main hall, Daxiong Baodian, was completed in 1020 and contains seven colossal clay sculptures of Buddhas from the Liao period, each standing several metres tall with their original painted surfaces largely intact. The hall itself — sixty metres wide, fifteen metres high — has stood for over a thousand years largely without major structural intervention.
The temple is on China's national list of protected historic buildings and receives serious architectural pilgrims rather than mass tourism. You can usually wander the complex without crowds, which makes it possible to study the structure and the sculptures at your own pace. The surrounding Yixian County town is unremarkable, but the drive through the farmland between Jinzhou and the temple is pleasant in spring and autumn.