Linggu Temple, Linggu Pagoda, Beamless Hall and Tomb of Tan Yankai

Author: Tai-Te
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Hours: Open until 6:00pm except for Linggu Pagoda which closes at 5:00pm.
Address: South-East Purple Mountain
紫金山的东南面

The Linggu Temple area contains the Linggu Temple, Linggu Pagoda, The Beamless Hall and the tomb of Tan Yankai.

Linggu Pagoda

The 60 meter high, 9 storey, Linggu Pagoda was completed in 1933. The pagoda serves as a memorial for the Nationalist soldiers that died in the 1926-1928 revolution. A spiral staircase around the central pillar leads all the way to the top. Looking out from the pagoda, you can see the Purple Mountain forest and Nanjing’s skyscrapers rising in the distance.

Linggu Temple

The Linggu Temple was built in memory of the monk Xuanzang. Xuanzang traveled to India to study Buddhism, and later he returned to China to translate a wealth of Buddhist scriptures into Chinese. Walk into the temple and take a right to find the building that displays Xuanzang’s story. The wooden carvings on the wall illustrate his beginnings as a monk in China and his trip to India while the statue in the middle depicts Xuanzang translating scriptures. If you are lucky, you may come across a friendly monk that can explain the whole story in great detail.

Beamless Hall
This vaulted structure was built entirely with bricks, and has no beams, hence its name: The Beamless Hall. This structure would be regarded as an extraordinary piece of architecture if it was built today. Considering it was built in 1381, it is that much more impressive.

The hall originally served as a place of worship, but now it serves as a place of remembrance. Within the hall 110 stone tablets include the names of the 33224 deceased Nationalist officers and soldiers.

Tomb of Tan Yankai

Tan Yankai was chairman of the Nationalist Government. Upon his death in 1930, this tomb was built in his honor.

How To Get There

Both the 游1 (you 1) and 游2 (you 2) buses stop near the entrance to the Linggu Temple area. These buses end daily service at 5:00pm and 5:45 pm respectively.

It is also possible to take a cab to Linggu Temple, however, legitimate cabs are not always readily available to take you back into the city. There are usually people at the entrance that would love to charge much more than the normal rate to take you from the Linggu Temple into the city.

In the off chance you want to reach the Linggu Pagoda area from the top of the mountain see "Linggu Pagoda to The Mountain Peak" about 3/4 down the Purple Mountain article.

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A historical place with great environment.

Nov 25, 2009 — Kate

A historical place with great environment.

Lingu area is the first attraction we went to on our Nanjing trip, it`s in the middle of Purple mountain, green trees everywhere, with this fresh air we went through all of Lingu scenic area, besides this, we enough the history of Nanjing so much, it`s have English introduction of each place, quite easy for us to travel around, and i have to mention that the toilets are really clean in this big area, so you should not worry about this part when you traveling here.

Very impressive place in Linggu Scenery Area.

Jun 24, 2009 — Guest

I went to Linggu Scenery Area last month, it was a sunshine day, when i got into the Beamless Hall, it`s all dark, with the hall 110 stone tablets include the names of the 33224 deceased Nationalist officers and soldiers, but the sunshine came through the ceiling i felt like someone light up a touch for me lead me to the bright, and i was image this light was also light up a hope to that revolution and we finally will see the bright future.

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