Five-Pagoda Temple

Across the canal from the Zoo's north gate: the 1473 diamond-throne pagoda of the vanished Zhenjue Temple — five stupas on a carved stone platform in the Indian Bodh Gaya form, the earliest and finest of the dozen such 'vajrasana' pagodas in China. Its base is covered in over a thousand carved Buddhas, and the Buddha's footprints are cut into the central stupa's south face. Since 1987 the courtyard has held the city's open-air museum of stone carving: 500-odd pieces from Han tomb pillars and Northern dynasties statues to Ming and Qing epitaphs, arranged in eight groups under old ginkgos.