A province packed with treasures

The Hanging Monastery in Shanxi province.[Photo by Li Mengyuan/China Daily]

My first trip to the Chinese mainland was very short, less than a day, but those few hours in Shenzhen still taught me a lot about the country. My visit to Splendid China Park, which has scale models of famous attractions, taught me there are so many interesting places in China.

These include the majestic Potala Palace, spectacular karst mountains in Guilin and the round "windowless" villages in Fujian, but I was most impressed by small buildings inconceivably clinging to a cliff and supported by long needle-like beams of wood. "How could people live there?"I asked myself as I looked at the small copy of the Hanging Monastery, but I couldn't imagine visiting such an awkward construction.

Several years later, here I stand just below the original Hanging Monastery in Shanxi province. At a height of about 70 meters above my head, it looks dangerous and attractive at the same time. A line of tourists is fearlessly climbing its narrow paths and ladders and call me up to experience the beautiful Chinese temple suspended between the earth and the sky.

More than 1,500 years ago, a monk who resided here in solitude started to build a temple. The height protected it from floods and the mountain above served as shelter from rain and snow. Through the centuries, the temple was extended and rebuilt and the existing construction mostly dates back to the period of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The temple is the only one in China that combines the religions of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. Visitors can walk through the monastery and see the humble cells where monks lived and the intricately decorated halls where they prayed to their gods.