This old tree, also called the Big Pagoda Tree, is near the city of Linfen, Shanxi province and is considered a holy place by many Chinese, where they can worship their ancestors. It is in the village of Jia, two kilometers north of Linfen, in a park, which is now an AAAA tourist spot, under provincial protection. More than 200,000 people visit every year to offer sacrifices to their ancestors.
The front gate of the park, "Root-carving Gate", has the shape of a pagoda tree root, and is 20 meters wide and 13 meters tall and, along with the antiquity of the tree, suggests that the visitors have the same roots. And there is a spirit screen in the scenic spot with the character for "root" (根) on it, an inscription from Zhang Ding, a famous artist (1917-2010) to reflect an ancestral feeling.
The Pagoda Tree site also contains a list of 450 family names of people who migrated from here to places all across the country, 600 years ago. So, Chinese from?home and abroad?come here to look for a blood relationship with the big pagoda tree.
