A Buddhist hill about 15 km south of the city centre whose centrepiece is not old at all: the Usnisa Palace, a domed hall sunk into an abandoned iron-mine pit on the mountain's west peak, built to enshrine a relic of the Buddha's skull. The operator's own description is worth keeping in mind - 'built on the basis of a leftover deep iron-ore pit, a deep-pit structure'. Inside, the Great Vault of Zen is an oval space 112 m north to south, 62 m east to west and about 41.2 m high, over 6,000 square metres across three above-ground levels; the relic-hall level is 33 m from ground level and spans underground levels 1 to 3.
EntranceTwo gates, east and west; ticket checking runs 08:30-16:30. The east visitor centre is where window ticketing and the foreign-document counter are
Last verified 2026-09-24
How to book
Book online before you go - the operator's WeChat channels or Chinese OTAs; without WeChat, Trip.com's international site can sell you the ticket directly (platform, checked September 2026). Passport holders collect the ticket at a visitor-centre windowVerified · 2025-03Source ↗
ID details
Real-name entry; passport holders use the staffed window. A passport counts as a valid document for booking, but the 2020 notice says passport holders must collect the ticket at a visitor-centre window rather than swipe in. One document buys one ticket per day
Paying on site
Book online before travelling; the operator says it encourages cashless, contactless payment. A window at the visitor centre handles overseas documents and concession exchanges
Language
The operator's site advertises English, Japanese and Korean versions, but the English site returned a server error when we checked. The operator does publish paid English guiding: a shared group tour of the Usnisa Palace is 60 yuan a head (Chinese 40), requested at the east entrance visitor centre or the palace entrance; an audio-guide handset is 20 yuan. In 2024 the city reported multilingual ticket machines for inbound visitors being installed here; whether they are still in place is unconfirmed. Otherwise assume Chinese-first on the ground