Yueyang Yangtze-Dongting Lake, China
Frequently Asked Questions
A few minutes' drive from the historic site, in this Hunan city set exactly where Dongting Lake empties into the Yangtze. From the deck you can see the waters mingle and the horizon suddenly open up.
The pavilion that alone justifies the ships' stop: three storeys of dark timber under a yellow tiled roof shaped like a general's helmet. Originally built as a naval review platform in the Three Kingdoms era and rebuilt across dynasties, its present form dates from the nineteenth century.
Because of a text from 1046, Fan Zhongyan's ‘Record of Yueyang Tower', which generations of schoolchildren have learned by heart. Its best-known line urges concern for the world before one's own happiness. Chinese visitors murmur the verses as they climb the stairs.
Together with Wuhan's Yellow Crane Tower and the Pavilion of Prince Teng, it forms the trio of the south's great poetic pavilions, and it is the only one whose ancient structure survives. Its frame is said to hold together without a single nail.
Dongting Lake, China's second-largest freshwater lake: sails and cargo boats set on an expanse that merges with the sky, shifting mists, islands barely sketched in. The panorama is a good half of the pleasure of the visit.
Walk the stretch of old rampart at the water's edge, then drop into the restored lane below: houses with awnings, calligraphy shops, tea sellers. Boats sway against their moorings and shopkeepers take time to tell you a story.
Hunan cooking, generous with chillies and lake fish. Say so if you handle heat poorly: here it is not a garnish but the foundation. Teapots move from table to table in the old lane.
A square kilometre of tea gardens and groves offshore, reached by boat. Its bushes yield ‘silver needles', one of the country's rarest yellow teas, once reserved for the imperial court. The excursion depends on available time and the lake level: ask on board.
Yes, the region claims their origin. It was in the Miluo River south of the lake that the poet Qu Yuan drowned himself in patriotic despair, and the races have since commemorated the villagers who rowed out to save him. The slender boats belong to local imagination as much as the old pavilion does.
Spring and autumn, April to May and September to October. The lake level varies widely by season, which affects trips to Junshan; summer is heavy and winter misty over Dongting.
