2018年CRI Climbing the Yueyang Tower, a pearl beside Yangtze

 

The Streaming down the Yangtze team has arrived in the city of Yueyang, Hunan Province and visited Yueyang Tower, a famous local site.

The tower is made of wood, but no nails were used in its construction.

Yueyang Tower has over 1700 years of history, including suffering damage and being rebuilt several times.

For more on this historical site and the city, we are now joined with Yang Guang, CRI's reporter covering the journey.

What can you tell us about the Tower of Yueyang and its history?

“Yueyang Tower is an ancient Chinese tower on the shore of Dongting Lake, one of the biggest freshwater lakes of China. Since ancient times, it has been enjoying the good reputation that Dongting Lake is the best among lakes, and Yueyang Tower is incomparable among towers. The building is one the Three Great Towers in Jiangnan; the other two are located in Wuhan and Nanchang. Yueyang Tower itself is with yellow tiles and overhanging eaves. Its roof, covered with yellow glazed¹ tiles, has a smooth curve, just as the general's helmet in ancient China. It is the only ancient building with the helmet roof structure in China. Legend has it that this helmet roof was specially² designed to commemorate³ a general, who originally built the former of Yueyang tower on the top of the city wall by Dongting Lake, to train and review the navy. So the original function of the tower is mainly military. But it’s the article named the Memorial of Yueyang Tower had made the tower famous and since then many ancient Chinese writers and poets came to Yueyang Tower to overlook the beautiful Dongting Lake; they have written many more articles about the building and its view. The architecture of Yueyang Tower is very special because it is of pure wood structure with nearly 20 meters high. With the technology of ancient China, such building is very difficult to be constructed. Moreover, the whole tower was built without any foundation beneath it. People in Yueyang jokingly said if there was a crane big enough to hang the tower up, the building can be moved to another place without any damage. Yueyang Tower was destroyed and rebuilt amid several fires or floods. The existing Yueyang Tower was built in the Qing dynasty, more specifically 1880.”

What is the contemporary role of Yueyang City along the Yangtze River?

“The city of Yueyang mainly functions in the area of trade and transportation as it’s located along the Yangtze River. It is the only international trade port city in Hunan Province and a famous port city in China, at the same time, having direct international ship routes with Australia, Japan, South Korea and many other Southeast countries. Yueyang's comprehensive economic strength ranks second only to Changsha, the provincial⁴ capital. In1992, Yueyang was designed by central authority as the first batch⁵ of cities along the Yangtze that was fully⁶ open to trade. And now Yueyang port has its own bonded⁷ area, which means the tariff⁸ of foreign goods can be omitted and the procedures of international trade are maximumly simplified in Yueyang port. Besides trade and transportation, Yueyang’s Dongting Lake also functions as a flood basin of Yangtze River. With its huge reservoir, through history it has prevented many big floods damaging farmland and cities of downstream Yangtze like Wuhan and Nanjing.”

That was CRI's Yang Guang, Streaming down the Yangtze River.

1 glazed   

adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神

参考例句：

• eyes glazed with boredom 厌倦无神的眼睛
• His eyes glazed over at the sight of her. 看到她时，他的目光就变得呆滞。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 specially   

adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地

参考例句：

• They are specially packaged so that they stack easily.它们经过特别包装以便于堆放。
• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings.这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。

3 commemorate   

vt.纪念，庆祝

参考例句：

• This building was built to commemorate the Fire of London.这栋大楼是为纪念“伦敦大火”而兴建的。
• We commemorate the founding of our nation with a public holiday.我们放假一日以庆祝国庆。

4 provincial   

adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人

参考例句：

• City dwellers think country folk have provincial attitudes.城里人以为乡下人思想迂腐。
• Two leading cadres came down from the provincial capital yesterday.昨天从省里下来了两位领导干部。

5 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

6 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

7 bonded   

n.有担保的，保税的，粘合的

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee.威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• This adhesive must be applied to both surfaces which are to be bonded together.要粘接的两个面都必须涂上这种黏合剂。

8 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。