Yueyang Tower 岳阳楼Yuèyáng Lóu

Why go to Yueyang Tower

Yueyang Tower stands on the old west wall of Yueyang and looks over Dongting Lake towards Junshan Island. It is one of the Three Great Towers of Jiangnan, and its fame rests on Fan Zhongyan's essay on it, whose line about worrying before the world worries and rejoicing after it is known to most Chinese schoolchildren. The timber tower, 19.4 m tall under a helmet-shaped roof and held up by four full-height nanmu columns, largely dates from the 1880 rebuilding.

The story

Legend says the helmet-shaped roof recalls Lu Su, the Three Kingdoms general of Eastern Wu who reviewed his navy from a tower on the wall here. The tower has been rebuilt many times; the present one dates from 1880 and was taken down and carefully repaired in 1983–84 to keep its Qing form.

What to see at Yueyang Tower

• Yueyang Tower 岳阳楼: The three-storey timber tower, about 19 m tall, with its helmet-shaped, yellow-glazed roof. Wikipedia calls the roof unique among China's surviving ancient buildings.
• Carved screen of the essay 岳阳楼记雕屏: On the second floor hangs a Qing-dynasty rosewood screen carved with Fan Zhongyan's Memorial to Yueyang Tower in the calligraphy of Zhang Zhao, the text that made the building a pilgrimage for scholars.
• View of Dongting Lake and Junshan 洞庭湖与君山: From the upper floors the lake opens out beyond the old city wall, with tiny Junshan Island facing the tower.
• Sanzui Pavilion 三醉亭: A small pavilion beside the tower built around the legend of the immortal Lü Dongbin, said to have got drunk here three times.
• Tomb of Xiao Qiao 小乔墓: A memorial tomb to Xiao Qiao, the Three Kingdoms beauty and wife of Zhou Yu, in a walled garden near the tower.

How to visit Yueyang Tower

Enter the park, stroll the pavilions and gardens, then climb the tower floor by floor to the top for the lake view, passing the screen of the essay on the second floor. Allow about an hour for the tower and an hour or more for the grounds and a walk on the lakeshore. Half a day in Yueyang is enough; a full day lets you add Junshan Island or the lake's nature reserve.

How to get to Yueyang Tower

High-speed trains reach Yueyang East in about 30 minutes from Changsha South, and in 45 minutes from Wuhan. The tower is on the lakefront at the western edge of the centre, about half an hour by taxi from the station.

Where to stay

Stay in central Yueyang near the lakefront, within a short ride of the tower and the evening street life. Yueyang is easy as a day trip from Changsha, but a night here lets you catch the tower at sunset.

What to eat

• Baling whole-fish feast 巴陵全鱼席: A banquet of Dongting Lake fish cooked many ways, including steamed fish and catfish roasted in a bamboo tube.
• Dongting whitebait 洞庭银鱼: Slender, noodle-like lake fish often called noodle fish, served mixed with egg or in soup at Yueyang banquets.
• Chicken with Junshan Silver Needle tea 君山银针鸡: Chicken stir-fried with Junshan Silver Needle tea leaves, a Yueyang dish famed for its fragrance.

Tips for visiting Yueyang Tower

• Do the tower in the late afternoon if you can, then walk down to the lakeshore; the view is meant to be taken together as lake, wind and distance, and it is lovely at sunset.
• Dongting Lake swells in flood season (July–September) and shrinks in the dry months, so the view changes a good deal across the year.
• Allow time for the grounds around the tower as well as the tower itself: the pavilions, the Xiao Qiao tomb and the walk to the lake.

Nearby

Also within 30 km: Yueyang Confucian Temple 岳阳文庙 (under 10 km), Cishi Pagoda 慈氏塔 (under 10 km), Sheng'an Temple 圣安寺 (under 10 km), Jiangtun Bay (Finless Porpoise Bay) 江豚湾 (under 10 km), Yuezhou Customs House 岳州关 (under 10 km), Junshan Island 君山岛 (under 10 km).

On the map

Open Yueyang Tower on the illustrated map to see the terrain around it, what else is close, and to add it to a trip and plan the days.

Learn more

• Wikipedia
• Wikipedia (Chinese)