Get to know Jiaocheng County
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- Administrative area
- County · 县
- Part of
- Lüliang
- Chinese name
- 交城县
- Local areas
- County guide
Area & population
- Population · 2020
- 226,768
Source: cited geographic source, as of the dates shown.
Guashan’s temples and cypresses
Guashan (卦山), three kilometres north of the county town, is named for a mountain form resembling divination trigrams. Tianning Temple (天宁寺) began in 627. Its complex includes the early-Tang Stone Buddha Hall (石佛堂) and later Ming and Qing additions such as Shengmu Temple (圣母庙), Wenchang Palace (文昌宫) and Guashan Academy (卦山书院). Ancient cypresses grip cliffs and rocks around the mountain.
Xuanzhong and Pure Land Buddhism
Xuanzhong Temple (玄中寺) was founded during the Northern Wei and became an ancestral centre of Pure Land Buddhism (净土宗). The teachers Tanluan (昙鸾), Daochuo (道绰) and Shandao (善导) all stayed there. Daochuo spent more than thirty years at the temple and wrote the two-volume Anleji (安乐集), a work on Pure Land teaching.
Explore Jiaocheng County
Core places to explore, with English and Chinese names.
Places to explore around Jiaocheng County
Mount Guashan · 卦山Mount Guashan卦山
Mount Guashan (卦山) is a cypress-covered hill north of Jiaocheng, where Tianning Temple and other religious and scholarly buildings occupy a south-facing mountain setting.
Read the place guide →
Xuanzhong Temple · 玄中寺Xuanzhong Temple玄中寺
Xuanzhong Temple lies in the folds of Shibi Mountain and has a particular importance in Pure Land Buddhism. Its buildings commemorate the teachers Tanluan, Daochuo and Shandao, while the main hall centres on a standing Amitabha…
Read the place guide →Plan your visit
Getting there
Jiaocheng County is about 65 km in a straight line from central Lüliang. Search for 交城县 in a map app to find stations and your accommodation.
Where to stay →Build your route
Mount Guashan and Xuanzhong Temple are both listed here. The linked place guides have entrance and visit details.
Continue with Lüliang →More in Lüliang
Sources & geographic information
Administrative names and parent areas: Official geographic directory · Reference date 2026-09-06.
Photo: Mount Guashan · 姒姓賢寧 · CC BY-SA 4.0. EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Photo: Xuanzhong Temple · Source photographer · License not provided. EXIF orientation normalized; resized without changing aspect ratio; converted to WebP. No subject edits.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Pins mark approximate centres, not entrances or boundaries.