Laitian

Laitian lies about 20 kilometres north-east of Hechuan town on the Qu River. It was founded in the Song, is listed among the country's ten ancient towns and among the first group of China's most beautiful villages, and its Qing-dynasty barbican survives as the only one of its kind in Chongqing. South-east of the town stand Erfo Temple and the Jiuyingyan cliff carvings, which hold a seated Maitreya seventeen metres tall and Chan dojo images recorded as the only ones of their kind surviving in the country.