The Hanging Temple (simplified Chinese: 悬空寺; traditional Chinese: 懸空寺; pinyin: Xuánkong Sì) is a temple built into a cliff ( 75m Above the ground ) near Mount Heng in the province of Shanxi. The closest city is Datong, 65 kilometers to the northwest. Along with the Yungang Grottoes, the Hanging Temple is one of the main tourist attractions and historical sites in the Datong area. Built more than 1,500 years ago, this temple is notable not only for its location on a sheer precipice but also because it includes Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian elements.
According to the History of Hengshan Mountain, construction of the temple started at the end of the Northern Wei Dynasty by only one man, a monk named Liao Ran. Over a history of more than 1,400 years many repairs and extension led to its present day scale.
After a horizontal hole in the cliff is chiseled into the cliff, a beam is put through the hole out of the cliff and boards and pillars are connected to the beams to build various beam frames and roofs. Balusters are set around all the buildings outside the cliff. Looking from the top of the mountain, some impending wooden poles under the buildings that are far from the cliff are still visible. These wooden poles are set to protect the buildings. The temple was arranged in random from north to south, with a bluff inside and plank roads built along the face of the cliff. Beam frames are constructed up and down, and balusters are connected to each other.