The Near-Demolition | Zhou Enlai's Directive: Protect the Ancient Pagoda, Make Way for the Canal!

Gao You Town's Guo Si, can be considered one of the most incense-filled large temples in the Northern Jiangsu region, now a national key cultural relics protection unit, and also an important part of China's 46th World Heritage Site, the Grand Canal. Inside the temple, there is an ancient pagoda, known as the 'Southern Big Wild Goose Pagoda'. Guo Si was founded in 874, and the Guo Si Pagoda is a relic from that time, still standing tall above the canal. Back then, the brother of Emperor Yizong of Tang renounced the secular world to become a monk in Gao You, where he practiced Zen meditation in a thatched hut. Emperor Xizong allocated funds to build the temple, bestowing it with the name 'Guo Chan Yuan' and the title 'Ju Zhi Chan Shi' to the monk. The Guo Si Pagoda is a square, seven-story pavilion-style brick pagoda, with a bronze cast gourd on the top, which is engraved with the eight characters 'Feng Diao Yu Shun, Guo Tai Min An'. In 1956, when the Grand Canal was being widened, the Guo Si Pagoda was right in the middle of the river channel and was planned to be demolished according to the original plan. To protect this precious cultural relic, Premier Zhou Enlai specially approved the plan with a directive: 'Make way to protect the pagoda.' Thus, the canal made way for the ancient pagoda, the water split into two, flowing on both sides of the pagoda, leaving behind the ancient pagoda on the river island and the eternal beauty of its reflection on the water. Gao You also has other attractions such as Yu Cheng Yi, Wen You Tai, Jie Shou Lu Wei Dang, Gao You Lake Flower Sea, and Tong Xing Pawnshop, which can be visited together.