HANSHAN TEMPLE

This temple, built in the th century, became famous throughout China thanks to the poem by Zhang Ji under the Tang: " Suzhou Doors are located in the Hanshan Temple. At midnight, the sound of his bell reaches my boat». First known as the Pagoda Temple of Universal and Wonderful Charity, the ensemble was renamed Hanshan Temple according to the name of a Buddhist monk who occupied under the Tang (618-907). The current structure dates from the end of the Qing (1644-1911).

Under the Song (960-1279), sounded the midnight bell was a local custom who lost later. The Tang bell mentioned in Zhang Ji's poem disappeared before the Ming (1368-1644), lost in Japan. After that, a faithful Japanese decided to donate to the temple of a cloche on the original model in 1905. Since the 1980 s, tradition has meant that the bell is ringing on the eve of New Year's Eve.