Hanshan Temple

Hanshan Temple is located in the western suburbs of Suzhou and has a history of over 1,500 years. It gained worldwide fame through the famous line "Outside Gusu City, Hanshan Temple; midnight bell sounds reach the traveler's boat" from the Tang Dynasty poet Zhang Ji's poem "Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night." Every day, countless devotees come to the temple to strike the bell, offer incense, and pray for peace.

Hanshan Temple primarily consists of structures such as the Mahavira Hall, bell tower, stele corridor, and scripture repository. The Mahavira Hall features a tall white marble Sumeru pedestal, atop which sits a gilded statue of Sakyamuni. Flanking the walls are 18 exquisitely crafted gilded iron arhat statues cast during the Chenghua era of the Ming Dynasty, relocated here from the sacred Buddhist site of Mount Wutai. In the stele corridor, visitors can see fragments of inscriptions by Wen Zhengming and Tang Yin—two of the "Four Great Talents of Jiangnan"—as well as poetic steles by notable figures like Yue Fei and Kang Youwei. Particularly iconic is the poetic stele "Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night," inscribed by the renowned late Qing scholar Yu Yue.

The bell tower in the temple is the source of the "midnight bell sound," and the resonant, melodious chime is a symbol of Hanshan Temple. Every December 31st, Hanshan Temple holds a bell-ringing ceremony to ring in the new year, striking the bell 108 times to symbolize the dispelling of worries in the coming year. Although the current bell is no longer the one mentioned in Tang poetry but rather a relic from the late Qing dynasty, it is an enormous rarity that requires three people to embrace it fully.