Juyong Pass of the Great Wall-Cloud Terrace

An exquisitely decorated building, known as the Cloud Terrace, situates in the right center of the Battle Fort of the Juyong Section. It was built in 1345, the 5th year of Yuan Emeror Zhizheng. 3 pagodas, named as Guojie Pagodas ( Crossing-Street Pagaoda ), were erected toghther with the terrace. The pagodas were destroyed at the turning point of the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Later, a temple was completed on the terrace. In 1439, the 4th year of Ming Emperor Zhengtong, the temple was renovated and named as Tai'an Temple ( Temple of Stability and Peace ). In 1702, the 41st year of Qing Emperor Kangxi, the temple was burnt down and left the Cloud Terrace only.

The Cloud Terrace is 9.5 metter high and 26.84 meters wide, and its underneath archway measures 17.57 meters. Appeared in the form of half octagon, the archway features in the Chinese characteristics. The marble balustrades are severely eroded through ages. Only some base of the column can be found on the terrace nowadays. The eave of archway is in the broken line form, which is rarely adopted by Chinese ancient architects. The archway is symmetrically decorated with carvings of elephants, lions, flowers, God of dragons and Bird Kings with the golden wings as well as charms of Buddist Sutras in six languages-Sanskrit, Tibetan, Phats Pa (Mongolian ), Uygur, Weatern Xia and Han. Those carvings are the best historical materials to study.

On the walls of the archway, there are carvings in relief of 4 Celestial Kings, namely they are Eastern Heavenly King of Lute, Southern Heavenly King of Sword, Western Heavenly King of Umbrella and Northern Heavenly King of Dragon. The subscribers and the date of construction of the temple are also inscribed on the wall. Those materials provide us with the most important data for historical study. The decorative pattern is generally in stramonium form with a Buddha statue in the center. Highly praised as " white lotus in a peaceful valley ", those delicate carvings are the precious treasures of Yuan Dynasty.

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