Hunan · The One of the Three That Is Really Old
Yueyang Tower and Junshan Island (岳阳楼·君山岛)
A Qing timber tower of 1880 on the old city wall, looking out over Dongting Lake. The essay it is famous for was written in 1046 by a man who had never been here.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | A timber tower on the west wall of Yueyang facing Dongting Lake, plus Junshan Island offshore |
|---|---|
| Where | Yueyang, northern Hunan, on the eastern shore of Dongting Lake |
| This building | Rebuilt in 1880 under the Qing, in timber, on the original site. It was fully dismantled and repaired in 1984 |
| Why that matters | It is the only one of the three great southern towers that is a genuine historic building rather than a modern reconstruction |
| The roof | A helmet-shaped roof framed without a single nail, which is the thing architectural historians come for |
| The essay | Fan Zhongyan’s record of 1046, written from a painting, for a friend who was restoring the tower |
| Junshan Island | A small island offshore with the tomb attributed to Emperor Shun’s two consorts, a shrine, and the tea gardens that produce Junshan Yinzhen |
| Time needed | Two hours for the tower. Half a day more if you take the boat to the island |
Why Go
An Old Tower and an Essay Written Elsewhere
1. This one was not rebuilt in concrete
The other two towers in this group, Yellow Crane at Wuhan and Tengwang at Nanchang, are reinforced concrete buildings from the 1980s. This one is not. The tower standing on the wall at Yueyang was rebuilt in 1880, in timber, on the site it had always occupied, and it was taken apart and put back together in a full structural repair in 1984.
The part worth looking up at is the roof, which is shaped like a helmet and framed entirely in interlocking timber without nails. It is an unusual form and a difficult one, and it is the reason this building matters to people who study Chinese carpentry rather than only to people who studied the essay at school.
2. The essay was written from a picture
In 1046 Fan Zhongyan, a senior official then out of favour and posted far away, was sent a painting of this tower by a friend who was restoring it, with a request for a piece of writing to go with it. He wrote the Record of Yueyang Tower without ever having stood here, describing the lake in several weathers and then turning the whole thing into an argument about public duty.
The line everyone knows is the one about being anxious before the world is anxious and happy only after the world is happy, and it has been quoted in Chinese political language ever since. So the most famous thing about this building was composed by someone looking at a picture of it, which tells you exactly how these sites work.
The catch. The tower itself is small and the visit is short: three storeys, a set of calligraphy tablets, and the lake. Dongting is enormous and mostly featureless, and on a hazy day it is a grey plane with cargo ships on it. The island is a separate ticket and a boat ride, and doing both properly is most of a day for two attractions that are quiet rather than spectacular.
Orientation
Tower in the Morning, Island After
The tower park runs along the lakeshore inside the old wall, and the tower is at the far end of it. An hour covers the building, the tablets inside and the two flanking pavilions; the walk in along the wall is part of the point.
Boats to Junshan leave from a pier a short drive north and take about half an hour. The island is small enough to walk, with the shrine, the tomb markers and the tea terraces within twenty minutes of each other. Allow a half day for the round trip and check the last boat back before you go.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Look up at the roof frame
The helmet roof is the architecturally serious thing here and it is easy to miss while reading the tablets.
The essay is on the wall
Carved in full inside. If you have any Chinese at all it is worth standing in front of, and there are English summaries on the boards outside.
Check the last boat
Junshan services stop earlier than you expect, especially outside summer, and being stranded is an easy mistake.
It is a stop, not a destination
Yueyang is ninety minutes from Wuhan and ninety from Changsha on the fast line. It works much better as a half-day break in a longer journey than as a trip in itself.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| March to May | Green, and the tea on Junshan is picked in this window | Wet. Hunan spring rains for days at a time |
| September to November | The clearest air over the lake and the most comfortable walking | The first week of October is the national holiday |
| June to August | The lake at its fullest, which is when it looks the way the essay describes | Hot and humid, and flood season can affect the shoreline and the boats |
| December to February | Quiet, and the migrating birds are on the lake | Cold, grey, and the water often merges with the sky |
Context
A Lake That Changes Size
Dongting is a flood-basin lake on the Yangtze rather than a fixed body of water, and it swells and shrinks enormously between the wet and dry seasons. Historically it was far larger; embankment, silt and land reclamation have reduced it a great deal over the last few centuries, and it now expands and contracts around a smaller core.
That is worth knowing because the essay describes the lake as vast and boundless, and visitors who arrive in a dry month sometimes wonder what the fuss was about. In flood it still does what Fan Zhongyan described, and the water comes much closer to the wall the tower stands on.
The tower is old because the site was administratively useful. It began as a platform for reviewing naval forces on the lake, became a gate tower on the city wall, and only then became a literary monument. Its survival through the Qing and into the present owes a good deal to having been a working building for most of its life.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · 220 km northeast
Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼)
The first of the three towers, at Wuhan, rebuilt in concrete in 1985 and moved a kilometre from its original site.
Spot · 290 km southeast
Tengwang Pavilion (滕王阁)
The third, at Nanchang, rebuilt in 1989 and famous for a preface of 675.
Island · offshore
Junshan Island (君山岛)
The tea island in the lake, with the consorts’ tomb and the shrine. Part of the same listed site as the tower.
Where to Base
Changsha (长沙)
Yueyang has its own station on the Beijing to Guangzhou fast line, which puts it ninety minutes from Wuhan and under an hour from Changsha. The tower is a short taxi ride from the station.
Most people do it as a stop rather than a stay, breaking the journey between Wuhan and Changsha for half a day. If you want the island as well, one night in Yueyang makes that comfortable.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On site · 1 hr
The tower and the tablets
The building, the carved text of the essay, the helmet roof frame and the lake from the upper storey.
Boat · half day
Junshan Island
The tea terraces, the shrine and the tomb markers, on an island small enough to walk around.
Guided · 3 days
The three towers
Wuhan, Yueyang and Nanchang on the fast line, in the order that makes the comparison obvious.
Worth breaking a journey for. It is the smallest of the three towers and the only one that is genuinely what it claims to be, which makes it the one to do second so you have something to compare. Look at the roof frame, read the essay on the wall, and take the island only if you have the half day it needs.
Plan the Three Towers as One Trip
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: Wuhan, Yueyang and Nanchang on the fast line, with the tower that is actually old in the middle where the contrast lands.