About 65 kilometres southeast of Datong, in a gorge below the sacred Mount Hengshan, the Hanging Monastery (Xuankong Si) is exactly what its name promises: a complex of 40 halls and pavilions built directly into a vertical cliff face, connected by narrow wooden walkways and supported by slender oak beams driven into the rock. Construction began in 491 AD during the Northern Wei dynasty, and the monastery has been rebuilt and extended multiple times since. The current buildings mostly date from the Ming and Qing dynasties, though the site is continuous.
The experience of walking along the elevated walkways, with the gorge dropping away below and the rock face pressing in above, is genuinely vertiginous. The monastery is crowded with both tourists and pilgrims, and the narrow paths can become congested in peak season. Visit early in the day or consider an off-season trip. It is usually combined with a visit to the cave temples of Mount Hengshan higher up the gorge.