Explore the Feiying Pagoda, the only existing 'pagoda within a pagoda' in China

The Wu-Yue Kingdom only lasted for 72 years, but it was one of the peaks in the history of ancient Chinese pagoda construction. The Buddhist pagodas built by the Wu-Yue Kingdom were mainly tower-style pagodas, with a majority being brick pagodas imitating wooden tower structures. During the Tang Dynasty, multi-storied tower-style brick pagodas appeared, with limited restoration of wooden structures. The Wu-Yue Kingdom, however, created a batch of exquisite brick pagodas imitating wooden structures, exploring a 'realistic' imitation pattern. The brick body and wooden eaves pagodas of the Wu-Yue Kingdom not only closely resembled the appearance of wooden tower-style pagodas on the exterior but also explored the use of imitated wooden elements to piece together facades inside the pagoda, striving for consistency in construction details with wooden structures. These pagodas were widely popular in the Jiangnan region during the Song Dynasty and continued until the early Ming Dynasty. The Feiying Pagoda in Huzhou was started in the fourth year of the Tang Dynasty's Zhonghe era (884) and was a brick body and wooden eaves pagoda built during the Wu-Yue Kingdom period. The construction took a whole ten years, and it is known as one of the 'Three Wonders of Huzhou' along with the Prefectural Temple (a temple within a temple) and the Chaoyin Bridge (a bridge within a bridge). The Feiying Pagoda has an inner and an outer structure, with the 'pagoda within a pagoda' being a rare structure nationwide. The inner pagoda is an imitation wooden tower-style, with eight sides and five stories; the newly repaired outer pagoda is a mixed brick and wood structure, with eight sides and seven stories.