Hanshan Temple (Hanshan si) is located in Maple Bridge Town (Fengqiao) in the west outskirts of Suzhou, and used to be one of the ten most famous temples in China. Hanshan Temple is also named the Temple of Cold Mountain. Located in the urban area of Suzhou City and was constructed staring from 502, Hanshan Temple became well known after the Tang poet Zhang Ji wrote a famous poem when he passed by the temple on a small boat.
Two lines of the poem reads, ‘outside the Suzhou City wall, I heard the sound of Hanshan Temple bell onboard the boat and felt its midnight spell’. The poem describes the melancholy scene of a dejected traveller, moored at night at Fengqiao, hearing the bells of Hanshan Temple. The poem is still popularly read in China, Japan and Korea. And it is part of the primary school curriculum in both China and Japan.
