Silk Road Photo Gallery - Wuzhong's 108 Pagodas

Facing the Yellow River is a stunning temple with 108 pagodas arranged in a triangular formation. Its history dates back a thousand years with silk manuscripts from the Western Xia period found underneath the foundations.

Each row comprises an odd number of pagodas that decrease in number as you go up.

The temple is located inside the Qingtongxia Yellow River Grand Canyon tourist area, which covers a section of the Yellow River Gorge west of Wuzhong. It is not possible to drive right up to the temple. Instead, your driver needs to drop you off at the tourist area's visitor centre on the other side of the riverbank (east side) to get your ticket.

Getting to the temple requires a number of steps. With limited time, we opted not to make a full day trip out of this and skip the river cruise. Once past the entry gate, take a short bus ride along the waterfront, which will drop you off at the water control and hydroelectric facilities. You then climb up the dam and reach the Lastern Main Canal, completed in the 1960s as an irrigation project.

Boats leave on the other side of the dam for both the cruise and the temple, which is the first stop and only a short ride away.

To leave the site, there is another bus that takes you along the west bank to the Iron Bridge, the first bridge across the Yellow River in Ningxia. Opened in 1959, the 292m-long bridge is now pedestrian only and part of the tourist site. On the other side after a long walk is the tourist information centre where we started.