Daci’en Temple and the Giant Wild Goose Pagoda | 大慈恩寺/大雁塔

The area around the pagoda is now a bustling city center, surrounded by stores and malls and colorful lights, but at the heart of it all is the Daci’en Temple, a Buddhist temple built in the Tang Dynasty in 648 CE. The Great Goose Pagoda, a World Heritage Site, was built shortly afterward to house sutras and relics brought back from India, artifacts gathered by Xuanzang, a famous Chinese monk and traveler. In addition to the modernized tourist attractions (like the nightly fountain), a climb up the stairs of the pagoda will also reward you with overhead views of the city from the south.