Baoguo Temple
保国寺
The main hall, built in 1013 during the Dazhong Xiangfu era of the Northern Song, is the oldest surviving timber-frame building south of the Yangtze. Its dougong brackets and caisson ceilings match the Yingzao Fashi, making it a must-visit for architecture enthusiasts.
Baoguo Temple is on the slopes of Lingshan in Jiangbei District, about 15 km from downtown Ningbo. Founded in the Eastern Han dynasty and granted its name in the Tang, its core is the Main Hall, completed in 1013 (the 6th year of the Dazhong Xiangfu era of the Northern Song). It is the oldest and most completely preserved timber-frame building south of the Yangtze. Although it was built 90 years before the Yingzao Fashi was written, its details match the treatise closely, earning it the nickname "living specimen of Song architecture." The hall is three bays wide and three bays deep, with a nearly square plan. The three exquisite caissons in the front bay (openwork octagonal caissons), the melon-ridge columns (pillars assembled from small pieces of wood) and the seven-bracket dougong with double corbels and double lower ang are all original Song construction. The legend that inside the hall "birds do not nest, insects do not bore, spiders do not spin webs and dust does not settle" is linked to its ventilation structure. The temple also has a Tang-dynasty sutra pillar, Song stone steles, and Qing-dynasty Heavenly Kings Hall and sutra library. Listed in 1961 among the first batch of National Key Cultural Relic Protection Units, it is now the Baoguo Temple Ancient Architecture Museum, with exhibition halls on Song architecture, dougong and construction techniques, where you can see a model of the main hall and demonstrations of dougong disassembly. The temple sits in the forest, is peaceful and gets few visitors. A visit takes about 1.5 hours, and admission is about CNY 20. Getting there: take bus 332 or 338 to the Baoguo Temple stop and walk about 15 minutes uphill, or take a taxi for about 30 minutes; alternatively, take Metro Line 2 to Baoguo Temple station and transfer to a bus. Notes: photography and touching the architectural components are prohibited inside the hall; the mountain path has steps and is slippery when wet; there are few dining options nearby, so bring a simple snack or return to downtown.
Opening hours
08:00–16:30
Nearby sights
- Cicheng Ancient Town
- Liang-Zhu Culture Park
- Ningbo Drum Tower (Haishu Tower)
- Ningbo Museum of Art
- Tianyi Pavilion (Tianyi Ge Library)
- Ningbo Old Bund
- Moon Lake (Yuehu)
- Qing'an Guild Hall