The Tianning Temple is located at the eastern foot of Mountain Dapi, overlooking the Yellow River old course in the east and leaning on the Dapi cliffs in the west, backing on the mountains and facing water, it has a grand view.

It is composed of the front, middle, back and north yards. The gate is in the front yard, in which are built the statues of the 2 generals of “Heng and Ha”. In the south is the Dizang Palace; in the north is the Tianwang Palace. In the yard originally were kept many valuable articles of the late Zhou Dynasty, stone inscriptions and an iron bell. The Depositary of Buddhist texts are in the centre of the middle yard, there were originally 6,053 volumes of Nanzang Buddhist texts were kept in it. In 1949 they were transferred to Pingyuan Province and since then have been kept in Xinxiang Museum. There is a “Buddha with one thousand hands and eyes” under it, which is 4.3 meters high, with attractive appearance. The back yard is the Giant Statue of Buddha Building yard. Before the yard in the north is the Luohan Palace, and north of which is the Bell Tower, in which there is an iron bell of Jingtai period in the Ming Dynasty (1493), it is 1.8m high and is 1.2m in diameter, and more than 5,000g in weight. There are inscriptions on the bell. The middle is the Daxiong Palace, in which were built the statue of Sanshi Buddha, hence it is also called “the three respected Buddha Temple”. The Buddha is 3m high, on the two sides of the walls there are pictures of 24 envoys. Behind it is the Shuilu Pavilion.

The Tianning Temple has grand scale and a long history, and is one of the historic architectural groups of high value in Xunxian County.

The Giant Buddha Building is the final architecture on the east-west axis of the Tianning Temple. Since there is a giant maitreya statue cut on the cliff inside the building, and its feet are more than one zhang under the ground, so goes the saying:“The stone Buddha is 8 zhang high and the building is 7 zhang high”, it is a great view of Xunxian County.

The Giant Statue of Buddha is 22.29 metres high, and is built on the cliffs in the late Zhao period and has a history of more than 1,600 years. It is the earliest in China and largest in north China. According to records in the Annals of Xunxian County, Emperor of the late Zhao “build the Buddha to suppress and guard the Yellow River”, therefore the Giant Statue of Buddha is commonly called “the River-Guarding General”.

It is commonly called “Granny Temple”, was built in the 21st year of the Jiajing period in the Ming Dynasty (1542). There are 87 temples in all with a total area of 11,116 square meters. Bixia Palace faces south and consists of the front, middle and back yards. Its architecture craftsmanship is superb and exquisite, integrating the strong points of the northern and southern architecture styles of China, with peculiar unique feature of its own.