Why is Yuejiang Tower special?
The Yuejiang Tower, located on top of Lion Mountain at the northwest of Nanjing, is close to Yangtze River. It is 52 meters high, with seven floors in total. It offers a great vista of Yangtze River and beautiful scenery on the whole. With green glazed tile, red columns, and beautiful pattern, it is of unique style of Ming Dynasty as well as the classical royal manner and thus becomes one symbol of Nanjing.
Yuejiang Tower Highlights
In 1374, the first emperor of Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang defeated his enemy of 400,000 soldiers with his 80,000 army. And in order to commemorate his victory and provide a place to admire the beautiful scenery of the Yangtze River, he ordered to build the Yuejiang Tower on top of the mountain and also invited his leading scholars to write essays on the tower. But for a variety of reasons, the construction was given up halfway. Today's Yuejiang Tower was rebuilt in 1999 and opened to the public in 2001, which put an end to the history of “Passage but No Tower”.
There are two south-facing entrances in the tower. The tower has an elevator but tourists can have a scenic walk to the top from the entrance on the east. After entering Yuejiang Tower, people will see a huge-size picture of “The Adventures of Zheng He”. Zheng He was the admiral of the imperial navy in Ming Dynasty. The picture is 12.8 meters high and 8 meters wide. And inside the hall, there is one copy of Zheng He’s Boat and a huge rusty anchor which vividly proved that Nanjing was originally the major ship-building location for the adventures of Zheng He and the largest ship building base in the world at that time.
The highest balconies of Yuejiang Tower offer a breath-taking view over the broad Yangzi River. The gorgeous view will make tourists have an unforgettable memory.