[2024 Jiexiu Attraction] Travel Guide for Xianshen Tower (Updated Oct)
Historical Architectures
Address:
East end of Shuncheng Road, Jiexiu City, Jinzhong City
Opening times:
Open today at 09:00-12:00,14:30-17:00Opening Soon
Recommended sightseeing time:
1 hour
Aoshen Tower.
Aoshen Tower is located in Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province. It is a magnificent ancient building with unique historical and cultural value.
Aoshen Tower is one of the treasures of ancient Chinese architecture, with a unique architectural style and exquisite structure. It has witnessed the changes of history and the inheritance of culture. The architectural features of Aoshen Tower include exquisite wood carvings, brick carvings, and stone carvings, which show the superb skills of ancient craftsmen.
NomadicBliss
A single glance is worth the trip.
🏔️ It's as if you've traveled through time and space to the ancient Han and Tang dynasties. The solemn and majestic buildings bear the weight of a thousand years of history. With careful appreciation, you can feel the accumulation of time and the charm of culture. Here, you can fully appreciate the subtleties of traditional Chinese architectural style and feel the crystallization of ancient wisdom.
✅ The Ao Shen Tower is not just a building, but a witness to history and culture. Let's walk into this historical corridor together and feel the profoundness of Chinese civilization.
✅ The Xian Shen Tower is a majestic and unique wooden structure. It combines a mountain gate, a music tower, and a street-crossing tower. The three-tiered eaves and cross-hipped roof structure is unique in style, rigorous in structure, and proportionate. The glazed roof is exquisite and gorgeous, and the wood carvings under the eaves are unique. It is a "living fossil" for studying Chinese Zoroastrian culture.
✅ The Xian Shen Tower, the Qiu Feng Tower, and the Fei Yun Tower in Wanrong County are known as the three famous towers of the three Jin dynasties.
lucasbutterfly
The land of glazed tiles
The number of ancient buildings in Shanxi, their wide distribution, the large time span they cover, the variety of types, and the exquisite artistry should be the best in the country. They are scattered throughout the countryside and towns, and even in ten days or half a month, one can only get a rough glimpse of them.
Jiexiu is the land of glazed tiles; to see ancient glazed buildings, look at Jiexiu.
Lewis_12-Scarlett
A gem of ancient architecture in a small county: the only remaining Zoroastrian site.
Jiexiu Zoroastrian Temple has high historical and cultural value and unique architectural charm. It is definitely worth a visit. I give it a rating of ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. Here are the reasons:
1. High historical value:
• Unique religious culture: It is the only remaining Zoroastrian building in China, and it is extremely important for studying the spread and development of Zoroastrian culture in China and its integration with Chinese local culture. Zoroastrianism originated in ancient Persia, that is, fire worship, and has unique religious beliefs and cultural traditions. The Zoroastrian Temple is a precious relic of this exotic religious culture in China.
• Witness to historical changes: From its establishment in the Northern Song Dynasty to several renovations and reconstructions during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the Zoroastrian Temple witnessed the changes in political, cultural, and religious policies in different dynasties in Chinese history. For example, the suppression of religion by the court during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty caused the main statue of the Zoroastrian Temple to be replaced. This historical event was reflected in the changes of the Zoroastrian Temple, providing physical evidence for historical research.
2. Unique architectural style:
• Exquisite and complex structure: It integrates the mountain gate, the music building, and the street building into one, and the plane is in the shape of "convex". This unique architectural structure is rare in ancient Chinese architecture. The building is about 25 meters high and has two floors. The waist is equipped with a flat seat color railing, and the upper part is covered with a heavy eaves, which is actually four floors. The four pillars directly support the upper beam frame, and the mountain gate and the stage are stacked up and down, forming a unique spatial layout, which is both practical and artistic.
• Exquisite decorative art: The roof adopts a cross-hipped design, and the eaves protrude from the mountain flowers in all four directions, making the entire building more three-dimensional and vivid. The tiles and ridge decorations on the roof are all made of glazed products, which are colorful, magnificent, and spectacular. The decorative style of glazed products has a strong Western Asian Persian style, such as the awe-inspiring sky god and the glazed statue of the Hu costume riding a beast on the ridge, which is different from the glazed decoration of traditional Chinese architecture and has unique artistic value.
• Novel wood carving patterns: There are many peculiar animal patterns in the wood carvings under the eaves, such as tigers, sheepdogs, sacred cows, elephants, etc. These are all sacred beasts in Zoroastrianism, which basically do not appear in traditional ancient Chinese architecture. It shows the architectural features of the combination of Chinese and Western cultures, and provides important references for the study of ancient Chinese and Western cultural exchanges.
3. Rich cultural connotations:
• Association with literary works: The story of Wen Yanbo's help from the gods was written by Luo Guanzhong, a novelist at the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, into "Three Sui Ping Yao Biography". In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, novelist Feng Menglong changed it to "Ping Yao Biography" based on Luo Guanzhong, making this story known to the world, adding literary and legendary colors to the Zoroastrian Temple.
• Unique digital culture: The architectural complex hides the worship of the number "three", the main building is three stories high, divided into three parts, the music building has three rooms, the roof is decorated with three-color glazed tiles, there are three temples, and the phenomenon of the coexistence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. This unique worship of the number "three" is quite different in traditional Chinese culture, which arouses people's deep thinking about its cultural connotation.
In short, Jiexiu Zoroastrian Temple has irreplaceable value from the perspectives of history, architecture, and culture. It is a treasure of ancient Chinese architectural art and is definitely worth a visit. However, it should be noted that the scenic spot is closed from 12 noon to 14 pm, and visitors need to arrange their visit time reasonably.
Evelyn876 Price
Ancient architecture in the Eastern Lustrous World!
China's only remaining Zoroastrian building - the Jiezhou Auspicious God Tower in Shanxi, commonly known as the Xuan God Tower, was built during the Northern Song Dynasty.
It combines a mountain gate, a music tower, and a street-crossing tower into one structure, featuring a three-layered eave and cross-hipped roof structure. The building style is unique, with a rigorous structure, harmonious proportions, and a roof adorned with exquisite glazed tiles. The wood carvings under the eaves are distinctive, making it a living fossil for the study of Chinese Zoroastrian culture.
On November 20, 1996, the Auspicious God Tower was listed by the State Council as part of the fourth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.
Location: Shuncheng Street, Beiguan, Jiexiu City, Shanxi Province
NIKOLAS HORN
A Ceiling of Ancient Architecture—The Xian God Tower
This is the ceiling of ancient architecture | The only existing Xian God building in the world! One of the four famous towers in Shanxi, the 'Xian God Tower', locally known as the 'Xuan God Tower', offers a deeper understanding with each visit to Jiexiu, about what it means to see Shanxi's cultural relics on the ground. This place is known as the capital of glazed tiles, and the Xian God Tower dates back to the Northern Song Dynasty. Artisans in the Tang Dynasty already used glazed tiles extensively in construction. The building of the Xian God Tower was meticulously crafted, with an exquisite architectural style, towering eaves, and the sound of wind chimes that intoxicate visitors. This building has been preserved through many twists and turns. According to investigations by scholars, this building is the only existing Xian God structure in China and even in the world, and is acclaimed by many as a must-see tower when visiting Shanxi.
DeliciousDishes
One of the rare Zoroastrian buildings - Zoroastrian Tower
Zoroastrianism is an ancient Persian religion, also known as fire worship because of its worship of holy fire (sounds familiar, right? The Ming religion in 'The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber' worships fire worship.) It was popular in our country during the Sui and Tang dynasties. And the Zoroastrian Tower is a Zoroastrian building, and it is currently the only Zoroastrian building in China.
🍁Zoroastrian Tower
It is said to have been built during the Northern Song Dynasty, rebuilt during the Ming Wanli period, and renovated during the Qing Kangxi and Qianlong periods. The Zoroastrian Tower is also known as the Xuan Shen Tower, with a beautiful and unique shape, it is a multifunctional building that combines a street building, a mountain gate, a music building, and a stage. It is known as one of the three famous buildings in Shanxi along with the Wanrong Feiyun Building and the Autumn Wind Building.
The Zoroastrian Tower is tall, the plane is 'convex' shaped, and the eaves structure is also very complex, it is a triple-eave Xieshan top rotating top.
The most beautiful is the protruding front part, five rooms wide and four rooms deep, with a corridor around it, a temple door below, a shrine in the middle, and a theater building above.
The wooden brackets and sparrow braces have many mythical creature patterns that cannot be seen in traditional Chinese architecture, and the most characteristic is the camel-like beast head with large nostrils.
🍁Zoroastrian Tower
Address: No. 581, Shuncheng Road, Jiexiu City
Opening hours: 9:00-12:00, 14:30-17:00 (Tuesday-Sunday)
Tickets: Free, register at the door
⚠️There is a lunch break at noon, be sure to arrange the order of sightseeing in Jiexiu.
The entrance to the Zoroastrian Tower is a public square, and there are many local residents who take leisurely walks and chat in the afternoon. The surrounding area is a residential area with small alleys, there are not many places to park, so the overall environment is a bit messy.
But the afternoon light is the best, especially when there is a sunset, the Zoroastrian Tower is very beautiful.