Yellow Crane Tower |
According to records, the tower was first built in 223 A.D during the Three Kingdoms (sān guó 三国) period (220-280). After completion, the tower served as a gathering place for celebrities and poets to party and compose poetry. It was estimated that up to the Tongzhi (tóng zhì 同治) Reign of the Qing dynasty, as many as 300 poems about the tower had been found in historical literature. Cui Hao (cuī hào 崔颢), a famous poet during the Tang dynasty (618-907), made the tower well known throughout China with his poem "Yellow Crane Tower". Destroyed many times in successive dynasties, the tower was rebuilt time and again until 100 years ago when it was, for the last time, reduced to ashes. The present tower is a complete reconstruction and is the result of four years of work beginning in 1981. Where the old tower was only 15 meters wide, the ground floor of the new structure was increased to 20 meters wide. The tower, 51.4 meters high, is five-storied with yellow tiles and red pillars, overlapping ridges and interlocking eaves, more magnificent than the old one. The Yellow Crane Tower offers visitors an abundance of things to see. The exhibit on each floor has a theme, for example, the theme of the first floor is about legend. On the wall, there is a nine-meter (about 30 feet) long and six-meter (about 20 feet) wide painted porcelain picture which depicts clouds, rivers and cranes to represent a romantic mood in the heaven. The third floor mainly shows poems written to praise the tower in different dynasties. On top of the tower, visitors are treated to a fabulous panoramic view of the Yangtze River, its bridge and the surrounding buildings in Wuhan City. Outside the tower, there are bronze yellow cranes, memorial gateways and pavilions. The new Yellow Crane Tower is regarded as the symbol of Wuhan city.
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