Yueyang Tower

The famous Yueyang Tower on Dongting Lake. It was first built in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), but this current tower is a more recent rebuild, around 1867.

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The lake embraces distant hills and devours the Yangzi, its mighty waves rolling endlessly.
From morning glow to evening light, the views change a thousand, ten thousand times.
On top of the tower the mind relaxes, the heart delights.
All honors and disgrace are forgotten.
What pleasure, what joy to sit here and drink in the breeze.
- Fan Zhongyan (989-1052)

Click on a picture to see it full size.

Us with friends at the Yueyang Tower arch, one of the entranceways to the tower.	Dongting Lake is well-known for its beauty - many Chinese poets have written about it - but the day that we were there, it was so hazy, we couldn't even see it! (This picture is from the Internet.)	Us on the tower's upper level. Notice the intricate woodwork which was all over the tower.	Another shot of us on the tower.
1 These Chinese characters to the left and right of the Yueyang Tower picture are a famous quote from the Song Dynasty poet Fan Zhongyan (989-1052). They translate to '...worry before the whole country worries, and rejoice after the whole country rejoices.', his comment on how a good ruler should act. The entire writing is carved on a large wooden plaque filling almost an entire wall inside the tower, with the calligraphy done by Mao Zedong.
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