Xiangji Temple

This guide to Xiangji Temple in Xi'an opens with an oddity: no ticket booth, no entry fee, unlike almost every famous temple in China. It traces that back to the monk Shandao, who died here in 681 after teaching that salvation needed no wealth or scholarship, only chanting the Buddha's name, and to his disciple Huaiyun, who built the temple's brick pagoda from donations gathered from ordinary villagers rather than the imperial court. You'll hear how emperors and empresses only stepped in with gifts after the pagoda was already finished. Look up at the eleven-story pagoda as you listen for the centuries it lived through.