Yellow Crane Tower or 黄鹤楼 is located in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China. It is easily one of its more prominent or well-known tourist attraction, if not the most. First built in AD 223 by Sun Quan as a watch tower for his army, the tower has been destroyed twelve times throughout history and repaired or rebuilt ten times.
The current tower was built in 1981 and is situated on Snake Hill (蛇山), about 1km away from its original site. The entire compound as seen from the map below is quite big.
Even their ticket office looks cool, in a Chinese traditional architecture building. Tickets cost RMB 80/adult and RMB 40 for children from 7 to 18 and senior citizens between 60 to 65. Note the opening hours during summer and autumn differs from that in winter and spring. During summer and autumn months, the entry into Yellow Crane Tower ends at 6.40pm, while in winter and spring, it is till 5.40pm. Ticket sales stops 40mins before last entry into the tower.
On the admission ticket, they proudly proclaim to be ‘The first tower under heaven (天下第一楼)’.
Hop onto a buggy to save yourself an approximately 15 mins walk to the tower. A round trip ticket cost RMB10. Don’t worry about missing out on the sights, you can always explore on foot on your way out like we did.
This tower is the main attraction within the compound.
The main hall at 1st storey features a 9m high, 6m wide mosaic painting made up of 756 pieces of coloured tiles.
There are themed exhibitions on each of the other floors. On the second floor (third storey), visitors get to see models of various Yellow Crane Towers throughout the different dynasties and compare their architecture designs. Over the years, the tower and its compound grew taller and bigger with each re-build. The first photo below shows a model of the tower in Tang Dyansty, the second model represents the tower from Song Dynasty, while the third photo shows a re-built in Qing Dynasty.
A wall painting depicting a scene from Three Kingdoms where Sun Qun led his army in building a watch tower, which was Yellow Crane Tower.
The exhibition labels and plaques are all in Chinese, so it’s kind of tough for tourists who are non-Chinese readers. My two other travel companions went back down after a quick-turn at 3rd storey as they were not able to appreciate what they were seeing. Then again, Yellow Crane Tower does provide English and Japanese translated cards on each storey to give an overview of the theme and exhibits.
The views from the upper storeys of the tower. Poor air quality in Wuhan is a common problem. The few days I was there, it was quite hazy so I wasn’t able to see far into the horizon and everywhere looked gloomy. Photos I took appeared as though they were taken through a lens filter too.
On the 4th storey, there are displays of artifacts on the Tower’s history. The walls are lined with painting on tiles depicting famous Chinese poets and their famous lines on Yellow Crane Tower.
The 5th storey is set up for reception with desks, chairs, sofas and writing essentials for people to create artwork and compose literary works. A long table was set up for Chinese calligraphy for Chinese New Year couplets and the character 福 (meaning prosperity).
Finally on the 6th storey, a massive wall painting made up of 10 parts totalling 90 sq.m. covers the wall.
After descending the tower, we took a stroll within the compound. There is a large temple bell to the east of the Tower where visitors can ring it for good luck for a fee. Otherwise, you can also toss some coins in below the bell and make a wish.
Thereafter it was an easy walk down hill towards the main entrance.
An art gallery along the way.
Further down, to the south of the tower, there is a statue of Yue Fei at Yue Fei Square.
If you are keen to get travel souvenirs, there are 2 shops at 2nd storey of the tower and some along the way from the Tower to the main entrance. The usual souvenirs such fridge magnets, keychains and postcards are readily available. More unique ones include gold-coloured souvenir coins and wooden bookmarks with poems, phrases and Chinese surnames and their origins. Each of these bookmarks cost RMB30 but really makes meaningful gifts.
Though the overall experience did not disappoint, it would have been much more of a thrill walking in a centuries-old tower as compared to one that is just close to forty years old. In this case, age matters. LOL