Discover Pingyao
Shuanglin Temple
双林寺
A separate UNESCO-listed site outside the walls holding more than 2,000 painted clay sculptures, mostly Ming, including figures so expressive they are called the treasury of Chinese polychrome sculpture. For many visitors it is the best thing in the Pingyao area.
The story
What makes this place special
Shuanglin Temple, at Qiaotou village about 6 km southwest of the walls, was originally called Zhongdu Temple; a surviving stele records rebuilding in the second year of the Wuping era, 571 CE, under the Northern Qi. The present halls are mostly Ming and Qing. Its importance is the painted clay sculpture: about 2,056 figures survive, carrying techniques from the Tang through the Ming, and it was inscribed as part of the Pingyao World Heritage listing in December 1997 alongside Zhenguo Temple and the walled town.
What you’ll discover
A modest brick-walled compound of ten or so halls, and inside them the best figurative sculpture in Shanxi outside the great temples: the eighteen arhats in the Arhat Hall, each with an individual face and gesture, the Maitreya group in the Hall of Heavenly Kings, and dense narrative groups telling the life of the Buddha in the Shakyamuni Hall. The figures are at eye level and very close - close enough to see fingernails and fabric folds - which is why they make more impression than larger works seen from a distance.
A little local insight
Good to know before you go
- The eighteen arhats are the reason to make the trip. Work along the rank slowly; the standing guardian figures with their twisted stance are as good as Chinese painted sculpture gets.
- This is not on the combined ticket and is outside the walls. You need a taxi, a didi or a hired car each way - agree the return before you set off, as there is nothing waiting at the gate.
- Combine Shuanglin and Zhenguo temples in one half-day trip out of town with the same driver. They are in different directions from Pingyao but a single hired car covers both in three or four hours, and separately they are an awkward errand each.
- Photography of the sculpture is restricted and the halls are dark. Bring a small torch rather than fighting the light, and let your eyes adjust.
- It is far less visited than anything inside the walls, so you can often have the halls to yourself. That, plus the quality, makes it the most underrated site in the Pingyao area.
- Allow an hour in the compound, plus 20-30 minutes travel each way.
When to come
Mid-morning, when there is enough daylight through the hall doors to see the modelling. Spring and autumn; the halls are unheated and freezing in winter.
Getting around
Courtyards are flat but rough - packed earth and uneven stone - and every hall is entered up steps over a high threshold. A wheelchair can enter the compound and cross the courtyards with a strong pusher but cannot get into the halls, which is the entire content. A bad knee manages with care. There is no lift, no ramp and no seating to speak of.
Worth knowing before you go
Photography of the sculptures is restricted in some halls and the interiors are dim - go in bright daylight rather than late afternoon. Easy to slot in on the way to or from the high-speed rail station.
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