The Yueyang Tower

The Yueyang Tower is on the west bank of Dongting Lake in Yueyang, Hunan. Legend has it that there is a military review tower here during the Three Kingdoms period, and there are poems and prose about climbing the Yueyang Tower in the Tang Dynasty, Such as Li Bai's lines which read: "Looking from the tower I command the full views of Yueyang, when the river flows back, the Dongting Lake thaws", the lines of Du Fu read: '-I heard about the water of Dongting Lake before, Now I climb up the Yueyang Tower". Yueyang Tower was rebuilt in the Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan wrote "Notes on the Yueyang Tower", as a result, the tower has enjoyed a high reputation across the country. The extant Yueyang Tower was rebuilt in the fifth year (1879) of Qing Dynasty Emperor Dezong's reign, with the west city walls of Yueyang facing Dongting Lake. The plane of the tower is rectangular, its frontage consisting of three rooms, surrounded by corridors. The three storeys have three eaves, with a total height of nearly 20 meters. on top of the tower are four sloping helmet-shaped roofs, the upper part of the roofing being convex and the lower part concave. It is China-s existing largest helmet-roofed structure, covered with yellow glazed tiles, the wing corner being upturned. The left and right sides before the tower stand parallel with the tower in the shape of" ping", with the Sanzui Pavilion and the Xianmei Pavilion serving as a foil.

Huanghe Tower

Huanghe Tower stands on the southern bank of the Yangtze River in Wuchang, Hubei. Legend has it that the tower was initially built during the Three Kingdoms period, although it began to become well known during the Tang Dynasty. This was mainly attributed to poet Cui Hao's verse which reads: "Riding the yellow crane, ancients have gone away, here only the Huanghe Tower remains". The Picture of Huanghe Tower, a Song Dynasty painting, vividly captures its appearance. The HuangheTower is built on a platform, under which trees provide pleasant shade from where one can look into the distance and see a vast expanse of misty, rolling water The central main tower consists of two storeys. The plane is of a square form, the left and right sides on the lower floor protruding out, while the verandas on the front and back are linked to the wing-tower. The top of the whole tower is well-arranged, with jagged wing-corners, giving it a magnificent appearance. After the Song Dynasty, Huanghe Tower was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt. Reconstructed in the seventh year (1868) of Emperor Muzong's reign, it existed only a dozen years or so. The tower, however, no longer consisted of many structures towering above a high platform as shown in the Song picture.Instead, a centralized plane was adopted standing above the city walls.The plane is of an angle cross. There are three stories with a total height of 32 meters.

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