Foguang Temple sits in a side valley twenty kilometres south of Taihuai, well outside the main concentration of Wutaishan monasteries and accordingly much quieter. Its East Hall, built in 857 CE, is one of the two oldest surviving wooden buildings in China — the other is the slightly older Nanchan Temple, a few hours away in the foothills. The hall is a single-storey timber structure of seven bays, with the deeply overhanging eaves and powerful bracket sets that characterise mature Tang architecture.
Inside, the hall preserves an extraordinary group of original ninth-century clay sculptures — a large central Buddha with attendants — as well as fragments of Tang-period wall painting along the side walls. The lower courtyard contains earlier and later buildings (a Northern Wei stone pagoda, a Jin-period Manjusri hall, Ming and Qing additions), each of architectural interest in its own right. Allow most of a half day for the trip out from Taihuai. The temple is now a UNESCO listing within the Mount Wutai World Heritage Site and is taken seriously by visitors who know what they are looking at.