Asoka Pagoda in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province. [Photo/lygsz.gov.cn]

Built in 1023 during the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279), Asoka Pagoda in Haiqing Temple, Lianyungang, is about 40 meters (about 131 feet) high. It was a sign of eastward spreading of Buddhism via the ancient Silk Road.

Asoka was an Indian emperor who converted to Buddhism after a vicious war with a king in the eastern part of the country. According to Buddhist records, Asoka collected all the parts of Buddha's sarira, divided them into 84,000 parts, and stored each one of them in a pagoda-shaped shrine. Then he sent the sacred relics to different parts of the world. China is considered to have 19 of them.

It has withstood a magnitude 8.5 earthquake in 1668 and is the highest and oldest pagoda in existence in northern Jiangsu province.