Pagoda at Bao'en Temple is located north of Xianghua Bridge, Renmin Road, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province, China. It was listed as national key cultural relics protection site in 2006,
Bao'en Temple used to be called the First Temple of Paying a Debt of Gratitude for Imperial Family, or Bao’en Preaching Temple, commonly known as North Temple. In Tang Dynasty, a temple named Kaiyuan Temple stood originally at the site, which was the former Tongxuan Temple built during the reign of Sun Quan in the era of the Three Kingdoms. In the subsequent Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Bao'en Temple experienced damages and restorations for several times, acclaimed by people the First Ancient Temple in the Wu Region.
Bao’en Temple pagoda is an octagonal and nine-story pavilion type pagoda made of wood and bricks. Every story has projecting planar balconies and eaves. The ground floor is 18.8 meters apart from side to side, with corridors encircled. The base is 34.3 meters apart from side to side, in an area of about 835 square meters. The pagoda rises 74 meters high, approximately 1/5 of which are the height of the tower top and steeple. With extruding double- tier roof and flying eaves, crimson balustrades and banisters, golden spire made of iron cylinder piecing into the sky, upstanding and spectacular, it is the crown pearl of all ancient pagodas in Wu Region. The tower structure is divided into the outer wall, corridors, inner walls, and square chamber at the core. Above the gate aisle and core chamber on each floor of pagoda were constructed the pyramid-like finely engraved caisson modeled after wooden structure, with complicated structure, and dazzling technique. The caisson above the third floor tower door aisle is particularly exquisite.
Circling the pagoda are the remaining parts of the temple architectures built during the reconstruction in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the hall there are Sumeru seats, engraved Buddhist lotus, dancing dragons made of bluestones in Ming dynasty. On the Norther part of the pagoda are in correct order ancient brass Buddha statue hall, built in the Qing emperor Kangxi reign and restored in thirty-third years of Guangxu Reign and the scripture depository pavilion, built in Kangxi years and repaired in the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty.
The brick Beam entablature, dougong, caisson, the steeple pole at top tower, the double or single supporting uplooking dougong in the inner eaves, the column head supporting round dougong, and the anglur dougong for insert in between, and the concave dougong for the interal corner, and stone carving on the Sumeru seats are are the precious materials for making a study of the song dynasty architecture.