Opening Hours: Open all day

Ticket Price: 10 RMB per person

Contact Address: Qiling Township, Ruzhou City

Best Visiting Season Pingdingshan is located on the climatic boundary between the warm temperate zone and the subtropical zone with obvious transitional characteristics. The city’s annual average temperature ranges from 15.14℃ to 15.2℃. It has a prominent monsoon climate. The area enjoys four distinct seasons, mild weather and abundant rainfall. Spring and autumn are the best time to travel.

Complaint Hotline: 0375-4968235

Transportation Guide Buses No.1, No.2 and No.11 can take you directly there.

Fengxue Temple National Forest Park is situated 8 kilometres north of downtown. Fengxue Temple inside the park was first built in the Northern Wei Dynasty more than 1,400 years ago. It ranks among the oldest Buddhist temples in China, equally famous as Shaolin Temple, White Horse Temple and Xiangguo Temple. The temple gets its name from the large and small wind caves on the mountain to its east. Constructed beside mountains and streams, it is tucked away in the mountain pass flanked by two wooded ridges with gurgling brooks. You have to walk three li northwards before catching sight of the ancient building, fully embodying the poetic scene of "an old temple hidden deep in mountains" and "a winding path leading to secluded tranquility".

Surrounded by rolling hills, the temple faces nine winding mountain ridges including Zixiao Peak to the north, Ziyun Peak, Shamao Peak, Incense Burner Peak and Shiliu Peak, all converging toward the temple. Hence the well-known line: "Nine dragons bow toward Fengxue Cave; tier upon tier reveals the ancient temple." The temple complex contains more than 140 halls, pavilions, towers and terraces built along the mountain terrain. The buildings rise and fall in well-proportioned layers, presenting compact and exquisite scenery.

The oldest surviving structure is the Seven Ancestors Pagoda erected in the Kaiyuan reign of the Tang Dynasty. This nine-storey square brick pagoda with dense eaves stands 24.16 metres high. The Middle Buddha Hall was built in the Jin Dynasty more than 800 years ago, adopting a single-eave hip-and-gable roof style. Behind it stands the Vairocana Hall, reconstructed in the 11th year of the Chenghua reign of the Ming Dynasty (1475). Inside enshrines a white marble Sakyamuni Buddha statue presented by Prince Zhu Su in the 7th year of the Yongle reign. The three-storey Bell Tower dates back to the Song Dynasty. It houses an iron bell cast in 1125, the 7th year of the Xuanhe reign of the Northern Song Dynasty. Weighing 4,998 kilograms, the bell features a simple solid shape with clear inscribed characters.

Eighty-four pagodas from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties scatter around the temple, forming the second largest pagoda forest in Henan Province. Over its long history, numerous literati left precious inscriptions here. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Fengxue Temple was listed as one of the National Key Cultural Relic Protection Units. Now it is open to the public and attracts many overseas visitors.

The Strange Slope lies within Fengxue Temple National Forest Park. Nestled among mountains, this spot boasts a mysterious natural phenomenon. When driving or cycling, vehicles roll faster uphill without starting the engine or pedalling. On the downhill stretch, you have to keep the engine running or pedal hard, otherwise you cannot move forward at all. If you pour water at the foot of the slope, it flows upward from the low ground. This puzzling reversal of gravity is known as "a unique wonder of the Central Plains"