Yueyang Tower (One of the three famous towers in the south of the Yangtze River)

Yueyang Tower, located on Dongting North Road, Yueyang Tower District, Yueyang City, Hunan Province, is situated on the city wall of the west gate of the ancient city of Yueyang, close to the Dongting Lake. It overlooks Dongting Lake and Junshan Mountain in front; it was first built in the 20th year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty (215 AD), and has been repeatedly renovated throughout the ages. The existing architecture follows the form and layout of the reconstruction in the 6th year of Guangxu in the Qing Dynasty (1880); because Teng Zongliang of the Northern Song Dynasty renovated Yueyang Tower and invited his friend Fan Zhongyan to write 'Yueyang Tower Notes', Yueyang Tower became famous in the world. It has been praised since ancient times as 'Dongting is the world's water, Yueyang is the world's tower', and it is known as one of the 'three famous towers in the south of the Yangtze River' together with the Yellow Crane Tower in Wuhan, Hubei, and the Tengwang Pavilion in Nanchang, Jiangxi. It is one of the 'Top Ten Historical and Cultural Famous Towers in China' and one of the four famous towers in ancient times, known as 'the world's number one tower'.