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China to Save World's Tallest Ancient Wooden Pagoda
The Chinese government plans to start a massive restoration and salvation project to save the world's tallest ancient wooden pagoda, which, in its 944 years of existence, is in danger of collapsing.
Standing 65.86 meters, the octagonal pagoda in Yingxian County in north China's Shanxi Province is not only the tallest but also the oldest wooden pagoda in China today. Compared with the renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, the wooden pagoda in Yingxian is 115 years older and 11.36 meters taller. The pagoda was listed as a cultural heritage under first-class state protection in the 1950s.
Preparations for the restoration project including an overall estimate of the damage and geological exploration of the pagoda's foundation are already near completion, and are expected to cost nearly seven million yuan.
Experts on ancient architecture are working on three separate restoration plans, and one will be selected with final approval from an expert panel organized by the State Bureau of Cultural Relics later this year.
Although it has successfully weathered nearly a thousand years of climatic changes, the pagoda is now seriously unaligned, mainly due to the damage done by numerous strong earthquakes and cannon attacks. The first two stories of the pagoda are leaning northeastward, and some of its wooden columns and parts are broken or split.
The increasing occurrence of earthquakes in the area also makes it even more urgent to realign and restore the pagoda, according to Cai Zejun, an expert on ancient architecture. "The pagoda is in such poor condition that natural disasters such as gales or earthquakes of high magnitude could topple the pagoda to the ground," he stressed.
As a result, the State Bureau of Cultural Relics has listed the restoration of the wooden pagoda as a top priority for the protection of ancient architecture this year, while the Shanxi Provincial Government has set up a special restoration committee to handle the project.
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