The Songyue pagoda is the one that any historian of Chinese architecture will point you toward, and it stands in the grounds of an old temple at the foot of Mount Song, five kilometres from Songyang. It is a tall brick pagoda with twelve sides, a shape found almost nowhere else, rising in tiers of tightly packed eaves to a slender top. By most accounts it dates from the early sixth century, which makes it the oldest brick pagoda in China, and one of the oldest standing buildings in the country.
What strikes you first is how well it has aged. The brick has the colour of old ivory in sunlight and a rich brown when the weather is wet, and the outline is clean and confident. Inside, the hollow shaft rises through the whole structure. It is part of the group of monuments around Dengfeng that UNESCO has recognised as the centre of heaven and earth, a title that sounds grandiose but reflects how central Song was to Chinese religious life.
Getting here is easy enough. The road from Zhengzhou runs south-west through the loess hills and farmland of Henan, then picks up the line of the Song range, whose limestone ridges appear suddenly above the fields. The bends are not tight but they come regularly, and a few climbs give you a view of the valley behind. Traffic is busy near Dengfeng itself, especially at weekends and public holidays, when coaches fill the parking lots near Shaolin. Go early on a weekday and you will have a very different experience.
Songyang and Dengfeng have all the fuel, food and beds you could want, with plenty of noodle shops and small restaurants serving the soups and breads of the Central Plains. Zijinglu, a larger town nearby, has more still. Spring and autumn are best for riding, while summer can be hot and winter windy.
This stop is paired on the ride with the Longmen Grottoes and with the Han Gu Pass site, and the three together give a very good picture of how thickly layered the history of Henan is. Stand a minute at the base of the pagoda and look up, because most visitors just take a photo and leave.