china_664

The Tianning Temple with the Tianning Pagoda, Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China

The Tallest Chinese Buddhist Temple Pagoda in Changzhou City

The Tianning Temple (simplified Chinese: 天宁寺; traditional Chinese: 天寧寺; pinyin: Tiānníng Sì; Wu: Thie平nin去zy去), located in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China, is noted for its giant pagoda, the Tianning Pagoda (天宁宝塔/天寧宝塔). Construction began in April 2002 with the opening ceremony for the completed structure held on April 30, 2007, where a crowd of hundreds of Buddhist monks gathered for the ceremony. With 13 stories and a height of 153.79 metres (505 ft), this is now the tallest pagoda in the world, taller than China's tallest existent pre-modern Buddhist pagoda, the Liaodi Pagoda built in 1055 at a height of 84 m (275 ft).