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Home Travel in Hubei Yellow Crane Tower
Yellow Crane Tower

               Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼)
Yellow Crane Tower 
(huáng hè lóu 黄鹤楼) is located on Snake Hill  (shé shān 蛇山) in Wuhan (wǔ hàn 武汉), Hubei Province. Enjoying the fame of 'The First Scenery under Heaven', it is one of the most renowned towers south of the Yangtze River. Its cultural significance led to its being made the symbol of Wuhan City. 
  
               The Legend of Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼的传说)
Legend has it that in Wuchang (wǔ chāng 武昌), there used to be a wine shop opened by a young man named Xin. One day, a Taoist priest, in gratitude for free wine, drew a magic crane on the wall of the shop and instructed it to dance whenever it heard clapping. Thousands of people came to see the spectacle and the wine shop was always full of guests. After 10 years, the Taoist priest revisited the wine shop. He played the flute and then rode on the crane to the sky. In memory of the supernatural encounter and the priest, the Xins built a tower and named it Yellow Crane Tower. 

The Poetry Written by Cuihao (崔颢的诗)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.

Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼)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.

Yellow Crane Tower
Location: Snake Hill, Wuhan, Hubei Province 
Admission fee: RMB 50
Opening hours: 7:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Transportation: Bus 64, 36, 12, 49, 15, 506, 544 and tour bus No.1