Lingtai Ancient Terrace 灵台古灵台

About Lingtai Ancient Terrace

The account in the Gansu Daily feature, written by a docent at the park, places the platform inside the 古灵台·荆山森林公园, a national AAAA-grade scenic area on Zhongtai Mountain that the county has been building and improving since 1996. The terrace is described as one of the county's oldest sites: King Wen of Zhou, the page says, built it after defeating Mixu, held there a sacrifice to heaven that only the Son of Heaven might perform, and named it Lingtai when the people of Mixu helped finish it quickly. Two tiers of hillside pavilions and a paifang gate stand on either side of the platform, with stone inscriptions gathered along the approach.

The park is laid out as a route uphill. The Jingshan gate is in Qin and Han que-gate style, and beyond it a bronze ding sculpture is a four-times-scale casting modelled on a Western Zhou ding unearthed in 1972 at Dongshan in Baili township; the original, China Gansu Net says, is of cast bronze, weighs 43 kg, stands 60 cm to the top of the handles, has a mouth 45.7 cm across, and carries a taotie pattern and a clan emblem. The Dehua Gallery comprises a Confucius statue, the twenty-four filial piety scenes and a bell-and-drum pavilion holding the Mingchang iron bell, cast in July 1196, weighing 6 tonnes, and designated a provincial protected relic in 1981; China Gansu Net records that it was moved up to the terrace after the temple that housed it burned down.

Further up, the Three Worthies Hall, in a Han-style building, commemorates the Jin-dynasty acupuncturist Huangfu Mi, the Tang chancellor and writer Niu Sengru and the Sui minister and jurist Niu Hong, with Huangfu Mi's as the principal hall. Higher still are the Zhaohui and Xizhao pavilions, given as the best places on the hill for sunrise and sunset, and the Riyue pair of pavilions, all three in Ming style, with the Jade Emperor Pavilion at the summit. Lingtong Gate is a remnant of the old north city gate from the Ming and Qing, rebuilt in 1996.

What to look for

• The ancient Lingtai platform, with its two tiers of hillside pavilions, its paifang gate and the stone inscriptions along the approach
• The Mingchang iron bell of 1196 in the bell-and-drum pavilion, a provincial protected relic since 1981
• The bronze ding sculpture, a four-times-scale casting after a Western Zhou ding unearthed in 1972 at Dongshan, Baili township
• The Three Worthies Hall, with its principal hall to the Jin-dynasty acupuncturist Huangfu Mi
• The Zhaohui and Xizhao pavilions, given as the best places on the hill for sunrise and sunset, and the Jade Emperor Pavilion at the summit

Location & getting there

Getting to Lingtai Ancient Terrace

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 灵台古灵台 with 平凉市 and 灵台县.