TIME IN CHINA >> Attractions >> Wangjiang Tower Park
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Wangjiang Tower Park

Located on the south bank of Jinjiang River, Chengdu, Wangjiang (overlooking the river) Tower Park is one of three famous cultural relics in Chengdu. It is a memorial to a woman, Xue Tao, a poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Since in the past women lacked social status, the story of Xue Tao is all the more fascinating.

 
Xue Tao was born in a turbulent society so her father named her "tao" wave in Chinese. Xue Tao started writing poems at an early age. After her father's death, she became a singer and composed poems to entertain others for a living. Most of her poems reflected her sadness and yearning towards a happy life. She was versatile and beautiful. History records that she wrote 500 poems and that her contemporaries greatly admired her.
 
Xue Tao loved bamboo all her life. So people planted various bamboos in the garden. That is why the exuberance forest of bamboo first catches the eye of tourists. Wangjiang Tower Park with its elegant garden of bamboo is the finest in Chengdu.
 
Built in 1889, Wangjiang Tower has become a Chengdu landmark. Legend has it that the sponsor wanted the building to conform to fengshui to enhance literate luck. It was only after the tower was completed that the sponsor revealed in two poems that his true motivation was to honor Xue Tao.
 
The main structures built in this park are as a memorial to Xue Tao, including Wangjiang Tower, Zhuojing Lou, Wanjian Pavilion and Wuyun Xianguan, etc.
 
Most exquisite and magnificent among its architectures is Wangjiang Tower (also known as Chongli Tower). The Tower constructed in the 15th year of Emperor Guanxu' Reign in the Qing Dynasty, has four storeys with a total height of over 30 meters. It is exquisite and beautiful with a square upturned eave on the two lower storeys and an octagonal eave on the upper two storeys, vermilion columns, glazed tiles and gilt cupola. It stands by the side of Jinjiang River, hence the name of the Tower Overlooking the River.
 
Yinshilou (Poem-chanting Tower) built after the tower of Xuetao's lifetime, with spacious rooms on all sides, is silhouetted against the river-side dense bamboo grooves and willows. The group of memorial buildings exquisitely laid out, such as Wuyunxiang Hall, Quanxiang chamber, Pipa pavilion, house a large amount of steles, paintings, calligraphy, inscribed couplets and poems.
 
Xue Tao Well should not be missed. Not only a poet and beauty, Xue Tao was a clever inventor inventing Xue Tao Paper with water from the well. Superior to the yellow and coarse paper used at that time, her Xue Tao Paper was colorful and delicate.
 
Visitors can enjoy tea made from Xue Tao Well water, read poems and couplets left by celebrities, and become intoxicated by the ethereal surrounding.
 

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