Xumi Pagoda

The Xumi Pagoda is a super old tower in China that's been standing for a really, really long time. It's made of stone and bricks and is as tall as a 15-story building! It was built way back in the year 636 AD, which is so long ago that your great-great-great-great-great-grandparents weren't even born yet!

It's part of a special place called Kaiyuan Monastery, though most of the monastery isn't there anymore.

This amazing pagoda has nine levels, like a cake with nine layers, and each level has a roof that sticks out a little bit. These roofs are called eaves. At the very top, there's a pointy part called a spire. The bottom of the pagoda has cool stone carvings, like little statues, on the corners. It's like the pagoda is wearing a fancy hat and has decorations all around its feet!

Even though it looks solid, the inside of the Xumi Pagoda is actually hollow! That means there's a big empty space inside. But here's a funny thing: there's no way to climb up to the higher floors. No stairs! So, even though it has all those levels, you can only really see the bottom part. It's like a beautiful, tall box with no ladder inside.

Near the door of the pagoda, there's a giant statue of a mythical creature called a bixi. It looks like a dragon mixed with a tortoise! This stone bixi is super big. One side of it broke off a long time ago, but guess what? They found the missing piece in the year 2000 during a dig! It was hiding nearby, and now the bixi is almost complete again.