The Wanfo Pagoda in Bozhou, Anhui | One of the must-visit attractions in Bozhou

Anhui Bozhou Mengcheng County Wanfo Pagoda Song|||In terms of architectural style, the Wanfo Pagoda is similar to the Chongfa Temple Pagoda (in Yongcheng County, Henan Province), which was built about 10 years earlier than the Wanfo Pagoda, and the two locations are only a little over 100 kilometers apart. According to inscriptions, it took an astonishing 10 years to build this pagoda. It is a national key cultural relic protection unit. Located in a park within the county city, it is open to the public for free. The Wanfo Pagoda, also known as the Flower-Inserting Pagoda, gets its name because nearly ten thousand small glazed Buddhas are inlaid inside and outside the pagoda. The Wanfo Pagoda was built during the Northern Song Dynasty. It belonged to Xinghua Temple during the Song Dynasty and to Cishi Temple during the Ming Dynasty. It is an octagonal thirteen-story brick pagoda with a height of 42.2 meters. The pagoda has doors on the four main sides and false windows on the other four sides. The second and third outer eaves are made of brick to form a flat base for the pagoda eaves. Inside the pagoda, there are currently three Song Dynasty steles. According to the inscriptions, the construction reached the fourth floor in the first year of Chongning (1102) and the eleventh floor in the fifth year of Chongning (1106). Based on the time interval between the two steles, it can be inferred that it took four years to go from the fifth to the eleventh floor. With a total of thirteen floors, plus the construction of the foundation and the pagoda spire, the entire pagoda took about ten years to complete, which shows the enormity of the project and the difficulty of construction.