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Tiger Hill Pagoda (built 959-61)

Tiger Hill Pagoda, or Yunyansi, was built from 959 to 961 during the Song dynasty. It is a 48 meter tall brick pagoda with seven stories and eight sides. It leans to the north almost imperceptibly by 3.5 degrees. Chinese engineers estimate that it weighs about 6,000 tons. Like many pagodas of the Tang and early Song periods, it is a stone imitation of earlier (or contemporary) wooden pagodas. The "brackets" and "lintels" carved on the surface are not structural, but decorative. Since this is clearly an imitation of wooden designs, Tiger Hill Pagoda preserves a valuable record of how wooden pagodas of the area must have been constructed.