Northern Chaoyang Pagoda, Brick pagoda in Shuangta District, Chaoyang, China

The Northern Chaoyang Pagoda is a 42.6-metre, thirteen-storey square brick pagoda with dense eaves, built on a rammed-earth platform about 100 metres wide and 7 metres high that was originally the site of the Northern Yan Longcheng palace. Above the platform sit a brick pedestal and a sumeru base carved with lotus petals, false doors, guardians and flying figures. The south door of the sumeru base opens into a 27-metre-high inner chamber containing a Vairocana Buddha statue.

The tower was first built in the Northern Wei period by order of Empress Dowager Feng as the Siyan Buddhist pagoda, on the palace foundations of the former Yan, Later Yan and Northern Yan. In 602 the Sui built the Fanzhuan Temple Pagoda here to house relics given by Emperor Wen, and under the Tang it was renamed Kaiyuan Temple Pagoda and rebuilt. The Liao renamed it Yanchang Temple Pagoda and restored it twice, keeping part of the Tang eaves.

The name of the tower refers to its position in the northern part of Chaoyang city. Inside, visitors can see Buddhist sculptures and religious objects that show how the site was used as a place of worship across generations.

The tower stands in Beita Square in Shuangta District, reached on foot from the old city centre. The brick pedestal has corner steps at its southwest and southeast corners, and a corridor on the south side leads to the underground palace beneath the tower. The square opened to the public in 2004.

The 1986 excavation of the heavenly palace and underground palace yielded over 400 copper coins, a gold-lidded agate relic jar, a gilded silver pagoda and a small glass bottle shaped like a bird. Two true-body relics of Shakyamuni were found inside the agate jar. The heavenly palace also shows clear traces of fire caused by a lightning strike.