Yueyang Tower
The famous Yueyang Tower, located at the western city gate of Yueyang in Hunan province, is listed as one of the Three Great Towers in the south of the Yangtze River in China.
Yueyang Tower was originally built for military use. The construction of the tower was commissioned by General Lu Su of the Kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period(220-280). It was designed as a tower for training, directing marine troops and for military reviews.
Standing on the bank of Dongting Lake of Yueyang, Yueyang Tower is magnificent and imposing, overlooking the 400-kilometer waterway scattered with sailing boats. Since the Tang Dynasty(618-907), Yueyang Tower had gradually become a popular tourist destination as well as a favored site for romantic scholars, who would frequent the place for chanting and writing poems. The great writer of the Northern Song Dynasty(960-1127) Fan Zhongyan wrote the widely-read article "On Yueyang Tower" with the famous lines: One should be the first to bear hardship and the last to enjoy comforts. This brought great fame to Yueyang Tower, making it a well-known scenic spot in South China.
Yueyang Tower has been renovated and reconstructed for many times. The current structure was rebuilt in 1867 during the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911). The tower resides on a wooden structure and has three stories. No rivets or nails were used in the construction of Yueyang Tower, which is a complete wood structure, simple and unique, holding unparalleled artistic values in the architectural history of ancient China. The tower's roof is covered with yellow-glazed tile and eaves rising high. The roof's ridge is decorated with various animal figures with a color-glazed fluttering phoenix in each of the four corners. Lattice works on the windows and doors are delicate, and the colored drawings painted on columns, girders and frames are magnificent. A round corridor is built on the second floor where one can lean on the balustrade and enjoy the distant view of the mists and ripples of Dongting Lake.
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