Tiger Hill Pagoda

The Tiger Hill Pagoda, more officially the Yunyan Pagoda, (Chinese: 云岩寺塔; pinyin: Yún yán sì tǎ or Chinese: 虎丘塔; pinyin: Hŭ qiū tǎ), is a Chinese pagoda situated on Tiger Hill in Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province. It is nicknamed the 'Leaning Tower of China'.^[1] It was the pagoda of the former Yunyan Temple. Construction began in 907 AD, during the later period of the Five Dynasties period, at a time when Suzhou was ruled by the Wuyue Kingdom. Construction was completed in 961 AD. The pagoda rises to a height of 47 m (154 ft). The pagoda has seven storeys and is octagonal in cross-section, and was built with a masonry structure designed to imitate wooden-structured pagodas prevalenat at the time. In more than a thousand years the pagoda has gradually slanted due to forces of nature. Now the top and bottom of the tower vary by 2.32 meters. The entire structure weighs some 7,000,000 kilograms (15,000,000 lb), supported by internal brick columns.^[2] However, the pagoda leans roughly 3 degrees due to the cracking of two supporting columns.^[2]

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger Hill Pagoda