Xiaoyanta (Small Goose Pagoda) lies inside the Jianfu Temple, 1 kilometer to the south of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province.

The Small Goose Pagoda is opposite to the Big Goose Pagoda, both of which are two important symbols of Chang'an (today's Xi'an City), the ancient capital of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It is called Small Goose Pagoda because of the smaller scale and later construction.

The Jianfu Temple was originally built inside Kaihua Lane in Chang'an of the Tang Dynasty, the former residence of Princess Xiangcheng, the daughter of Tang Emperor Taizong. In the first year (684) of the Wenming reign under Tang Emperor Zhongzong, in order to bring happiness to Emperor Gaozong, the royal clan built the temple, which was named Xianfu Temple (Temple of Presenting Happiness) at the first beginning, and renamed it as Jianfu Temple (the Temple of Bringing Happiness) in the first year (690) of Tianshou reign. It was one of the famous temples in Chang'an at that time.

In the second year (671) of the Xianheng reign under Emperor Gaozong, an eminent monk named Yijing set off from Luoyang City to India by sea via Guangzhou. It took him 25 years to return with more than 400 Buddhist sutras in Sanskrit after traveling over more than 30 countries. In the second year (706) of the Shenlong reign, Yijing translated 56 Buddhist sutras in the Jianfu Temple and wrote a bookBiography of Eminent Monks in the Tang Dynasty in Search of Buddhist Truth in India, which is of great value for the research into the history of cultural exchange between China and India. Now the only building extant in the Jianfu Temple is the Small Goose Pagoda that was built in the first year (707) of the Jinglong reign in the Tang Dynasty.

The Small Wild Goose Pagoda is a multi-eave and square brick structure. Originally it was 46 meters high with 15 storeys, but now it is 43.3 meters high with 13 storeys, because its steeple was destroyed. It has a square pedestal and a huge first storey, whose sides measure 11.38 meters long each. Doors on the north and south sides of the first storey have frames built of black stone. Carved on the lintel are images of arhats and designs of grasses, their excellent workmanship reflecting the artistic style of the early Tang Dynasty. The pagoda has fifteen pent roofs. Each storey is very low with small windows only on the south and north sides to let in light and air. They do not correspond to the floors inside. The eaves are formed by designs in the shape of chevrons and fifteen tiers of overlapping bricks, each tier wider than the one below, thus making the eaves curve inward, which is a characteristic of multi-eave pagodas in the Tang Dynasty. The exterior of the pagoda tapers gradually from the bottom. From the first to the fifth storey it tapers very little, but from the sixth storey up, it reduces drastically, giving the pagoda a smooth curved contour. The tubular interior of the pagoda has wooden flooring and a winding flight of wooden steps leading to other storeys, but there is little space and it is rather dark inside the pagoda. The Small Goose Pagoda is so elegant and beautiful that almost all the multi-eave pagodas built of stones and bricks followed the model of it in different places. Though the multi-eave pagoda built in the Ming and Qing dynasties in Yunnan Province and Sichuan Province respectively have local flavors, the inherited relationship between them and the Small Goose Pagoda can be found.

Now there is still a huge iron bell weighing more than 10,000 kg in the temple, which is made in the 3^rdyear (1192) of the Mingchang reign in the Jin Dynasty (1115-1234). The sound of the huge bell is loud and clear, and therefore the Morning Bell in the Goose Pagoda is regarded as one of the eight scenic features in Shaanxi Province.