◎Baoyun Tower in Old Town

As a major historical and cultural site protected at the national level,Baoyun Tower is located in Baoyun Temple,Jiucheng Village,Hengshui City.Built in the early Northern Song Dynasty,the building has a brick and wood structure,with a height of 35 meters and a base perimeter of 25.6 meters.There is an arched Buddha niche in the south side of the first floor,in which there is a statue of a sitting Buddha on the stone-carved lotus flower.There is a gourd shaped spire on the top of the tower.The whole tower is a nine-layer octahedral pyramid with different architectural styles on different floors,such as bucket arches like mandarin duck and bucket arches like plum blossom.On the first floor of the tower,there are double eaves and a small arched door on the south and north,respectively.On the second floor,there is a small arched door on the east and west,respectively.On the third floor,there is a small arched door on the south and north,respectively.On the fourth and above floors,there is a small arched door on each side.Therefore,from the inside of the tower,you may go up along the stairs to the second floor,third and fourth floors; however,you must turn half a circle from the outside of the tower along the eaves of the tower,and then enter the tower through another door to go to the next higher floor.It is extremely dangerous to walk along the eaves which are just more than two-chi wide outside the tower.You may go upstairs to the fifth and above floors in the tower.There are more than ten stone steles on the south of the tower,which recorded the repair of previous times of the tower.In the temple,there is a cluster of “1,000-year-old immortal grass” (Iris ensata Thunb),which was planted by Wang Zhihuan,a famous poet of the Tang Dynasty.In recent years,the main and side halls have been rebuilt successively,and the original appearance of Baoyun Temple has been restored.There is a grand temple fair on the 15th day of the first month in the lunar calendar every year.(https://www.daowen.com)