Dingguang Pagoda is located at the foot of the western part of Mount Yu. As it was painted white, it is known as the White Pagoda. According to an inscription on a stone tablet there, when ground was broken to lay the foundation for the pagoda, a glittering bead was unearthed. Hence the name Dingguang (Light Keeping) Pagoda. The pagoda was built in 904 in the Tang Dynasty. However, except for its stone base, no part of the original pagoda remains. The original pagoda was built of brick and had wooden paneling and pent roofs, making it a brick and wooden structure of seven storeys. In 1538, in the Ming Dynasty, the pagoda was struck by lightning. Its wooden paneling and pent roofs were burnt and even its brick framework was damaged. When it was rebuilt in 1548, the inner walls of the remaining brick structure were thinned by one fourth and a wooden staircase was built inside the pagoda, thus changing it into a totally brick structure. The present octagonal, seven-storeyed pagoda, forty-one meters high, is of Ming Dynasty style.
