Wooden Tower of Ying County

The Fogong Temple Wooden Pagoda of Ying County is also called Wooden Tower of Ying County. It is highest and oldest wood tower building in China. The ancient simple appearance, and staggered rigid structure attract the tourists. It was listed the first key national heritage conservation unit approved by the State Council in 1961. Not only is the treasure of wooden structure in the world, but also it is the conservation place for rare historic relic in Liao Dynasty. Two Buddha teeth reflect the Buddhist cultural connotation of Fogong Temple Wooden Pagoda, and the Buddhist relics are in the palace of the Buddha. The tower is located on the four-meter stylobate with height of 67.31 meters and diameter of 30.27 meters for ground layer, and the shape is round. The fa？ade for first layer is double eaves, and other layers are all sigle eaves. There are five layer and six eaves, and every layer has dark layer, so there are 9 layers in total. Because ground layer is double eaves and has winding corridor, the appearance of the tower has six-layer eaves. Every layer is supported by inside and outside pillars of two circles, and there are 24 pillars outside and 8 pillars inside. The diagonal bracing, girder, santalum album, and short pillar are used in the wooden pillars, which consist of wooden frame of compound beam type with different directions. The Korean pine materials of 3,000 cubic meters (over2,600 tons) are used for whole wooden tower, the overall percentage is proper, building is grand, the art is fine, and the appearance is solemn.