Discover Nanjing
Qixia Temple and Qixia Mountain
栖霞寺与栖霞山
A 5th-century monastery north-east of the city whose cliff face holds the Thousand Buddha Caves, the oldest surviving stone carving of its kind in southern China. The mountain behind it is Nanjing's great autumn maple site.
The story
What makes this place special
Qixia Temple on Qixia Mountain, north-east of the city, was founded in the Southern Qi: the scholar-recluse Ming Sengshao gave his hillside retreat, the Qixia Lodge, to the monk Fadu, who turned it into a monastery and kept the name. It became one of the most important centres of Buddhist learning in southern China. Burned in the late Qing wars, it was rebuilt from 1919. Beside it stand two things older than anything in the monastery: the stone relic pagoda, first built under the Southern Qi and rebuilt in the Southern Tang of the Five Dynasties period, standing about 18 metres; and the Thousand Buddha Cliff, a series of niches cut into the quartz sandstone of the hillside from the Southern Qi into the Liang, with later additions through the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming. The stone weathers badly, so many figures are now soft and indistinct.
What you’ll discover
A working monastery of courtyards at the foot of the hill, then a short climb to the relic pagoda, whose carved base — scenes from the Buddha's life, and guardians — is the finest early stone carving in the Nanjing area. Above and around it the Thousand Buddha Cliff: niches and grottoes in the rock face, the largest being the Great Buddha Hall, which you walk up to and among. Beyond that the mountain itself, a network of paths to several summits, with a view of the Yangtze from the pavilion on Hushan to the north-west. In autumn the whole hillside turns; the local saying pairs Niushou Mountain in spring with Qixia in autumn.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- Come for the stone carving, not the temple. The relic pagoda's carved base and the Thousand Buddha Cliff are Southern Dynasties work and are among the oldest Buddhist sculpture in southern China; the temple buildings are 1919 onwards.
- Autumn colour here peaks from mid-November into early December, after beginning to turn in late October. That is the one time the mountain is genuinely crowded and the one time it is spectacular.
- In leaf season be inside the gate by nine. After ten the climb becomes a queue and the car park fills.
- Climb to Hushan in the north-west for the Yangtze view from the Biyun pavilion. Most visitors stop at the cliff carvings and never see the river.
- It is well outside the city and reached by bus from Nanjing station or by car; allow most of a day, and bring water, because the mountain's facilities are thin.
When to come
Mid-November to early December for the colour, arriving at opening. Spring and summer are quiet, green and perfectly pleasant, with the carvings to yourself.
Getting around
Limited. The temple courtyards at the foot are level and reachable, so a wheelchair user can see the monastery. The pagoda and the Thousand Buddha Cliff involve steps up the hillside, and the mountain trails above are steep, stepped and in places unpaved with no handrails. A bad knee can reach the pagoda and lower niches; the summits need real walking.
Worth knowing before you go
Go the second and third weeks of November for the maples, and go on a weekday - the access road gridlocks.
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