Skip to content
A little preparation. A much better adventure.Independent travel advice · Made for China
Save your trip
Menu
Book your trip

Discover Datong

Hanging Temple (Xuankong Si)

悬空寺

A 1,500-year-old timber monastery pinned to a sheer cliff face above a gorge below Mount Heng, its halls held up by slender wooden poles. It is the only temple in China built jointly for Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism, and walking its plank galleries is the main event.

¥15 park entry plus a separate ¥100 climbing ticket if you want to go up onto the temple itself≈ US$2.23–151.5-2 hours including the climbPassport needed
Plan your visit Open map
Hanging Temple (Xuankong Si) (悬空寺), Datong
Photo: Romain Pontida · CC BY-SA 2.0

The story

What makes this place special

Xuankong Si is built into a cliff face in the Jinlong Gorge at the foot of Mount Heng, about 65 km southeast of Datong, and local tradition dates its founding to the late Northern Wei, in the late fifth or early sixth century; what stands today is largely Ming and Qing rebuilding. It is held up by oak beams driven deep into drilled sockets in the rock, with the visible stilts carrying less load than they appear to. Unusually, it enshrines Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian figures in the same complex.

What you’ll discover

From the gorge floor you look up at a cluster of small timber halls stacked against a vertical cliff, linked by plank galleries and ladder-like stairs. Climbing it means a one-way circuit: up a stone stair to the lower level, through a sequence of shrine rooms barely big enough to turn around in, along the narrow outer gallery with the drop on one side, and back down. The highest hall holds the three-religion sculpture group. The climb takes perhaps 40 minutes; the halls themselves are tiny and the experience is the structure, not the contents.

A little local insight

Good to know before you go

  • There are two separate tickets: scenic-area entry, which gets you into the gorge to look at the temple from below, and a climbing ticket, which is the only way onto the structure. They are sold separately and the climbing ticket is strictly capped.
  • The climbing ticket is the bottleneck and the cap has been tightened repeatedly - from 2026 the daily total was cut to around 2,475. Online release and on-the-day counter sales are separate allocations, and the counter allocation is split into a morning and an afternoon block.
  • Book the climbing ticket online the moment the window opens for your date; the online release runs from early morning to late evening and can clear within days of release. On a holiday, counter tickets have sold out in under ten minutes from opening, with people queueing from before dawn.
  • Do not buy from touts outside the gate. Resale at double face value is routine there and the operator has been cancelling accounts used for it.
  • If you cannot get a climbing ticket, the view from the gorge floor is genuinely the better photograph, and the site now runs a mixed-reality headset experience at the bottom that walks you through the interior. Plenty of visitors see the temple properly without ever going up.
  • Go up as early in your time slot as you can. The galleries are single-file; once a tour group is on them you move at their pace and cannot turn back.
  • Combine with Mount Heng, which is the same ticketed area, and with the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, which is on the same road back towards Datong.

When to come

First slot of the morning, for light into the gorge and the thinnest crowd on the galleries. April to October; the plank walkways are closed or treacherous in ice and snow.

Getting around

The climb is not possible with a wheelchair, and should not be attempted with a bad knee or any problem with balance or heights. It is stone and timber stairs with high risers, open drops, single-file galleries about 60 cm wide, and no way to turn back once committed. The gorge floor and the viewing area below are reachable on a mostly level paved path and a chair can manage that part with help, which is the right plan - you see the whole temple from there.

Worth knowing before you go

Ignore any agent or account promising guaranteed climbing tickets - the scenic area has publicly stated no back channel exists. If you miss out, the park launched a 灵境悬空 mixed-reality walkthrough in 2026 that lets you tour the interior from the gorge floor.

Compare established providers

Check live tours and tickets

Search for Hanging Temple (Xuankong Si) in Datong. Prices, availability, payment and confirmation are handled by the booking provider.

Search on Trip.comSearch China attraction tickets, tours and local experiences.Search on ViatorCompare bookable tours, attraction tickets and transfers.Search on GetYourGuideCompare tours and tickets with provider cancellation terms.Search on KlookCompare Asia-focused attraction tickets and experiences.

China Travel Select does not take payment or create the reservation. Confirm the exact name, dates, inclusions and cancellation rules on the provider’s page.