Historic city · Port · Cultural centre · Hunan
Yueyang
岳阳
Yueyang Tower above Dongting Lake
Yueyang is a prefecture-level city in north-eastern Hunan on the shore of Dongting Lake, where the lake drains into the Yangtze. It is known for Yueyang Tower, one of the Three Great Towers of southern China and the subject of Fan Zhongyan's essay of 1046, for Junshan Island and its yellow tea, and for Miluo, where the poet Qu Yuan drowned.
Key facts
Overview
Yueyang stands on the east shore of Dongting Lake at the point where its waters turn north to join the Yangtze at Chenglingji. The lake, whose extent changes greatly between the flood season and winter, is a major wintering ground for cranes, geese and other waterbirds, and was once a refuge of the Yangtze finless porpoise.
The city's fame is literary. Yueyang Tower has inspired poets since the Tang, and Fan Zhongyan's “Record of Yueyang Tower” — with its call to be “first to worry about the world's troubles and last to enjoy its pleasures” — is one of the most quoted texts in Chinese.
Names and nicknames
巴陵
The historic name of the city and its prefecture from the Southern dynasties onwards.
History
A fortress town of Wu stood here in the Three Kingdoms period, and a tower on the city wall was known in the Tang. In 1045 the prefect Teng Zijing restored it and asked Fan Zhongyan for a commemorative text, completed in 1046. Yueyang was opened to foreign trade in 1899. Its position on the Yangtze made it a port and, from the 1970s, a centre of petrochemicals.
215
Lu Su's garrison at Baling
The Wu commander Lu Su trained a navy on the lake; tradition places the origin of Yueyang Tower on his reviewing tower.
1046
“Record of Yueyang Tower”
Fan Zhongyan's essay on the restored tower became a classic of Song prose and a statement of the Confucian official's duty.
1899
Yueyang opened to foreign trade
The port of Chenglingji was opened to foreign shipping.
Landmarks
Historic site
Yueyang Tower
岳阳楼
Three-storey wooden tower with a helmet-shaped roof on the city wall facing the lake; the present structure is largely of 1880.
Nature
Junshan Island
君山岛
Island in the lake with the tomb of the two consorts of the legendary Emperor Shun, spotted bamboo said to be stained by their tears, and tea gardens.
Historic site
Qu Yuan Memorial Temple
屈子祠
Qing-dynasty temple on Yusi Hill above the Miluo River, dedicated to the poet.
Historic site
Zhang Guying village
张谷英村
Ming and Qing village of connected courtyards built by a single clan, in Yueyang county.
Neighbourhoods
Dongting South Road
洞庭南路
Old commercial street near the tower and the lakefront.
Food
Dongting whitebait
洞庭银鱼
Tiny translucent lake fish, cooked with egg or in soups.
Junshan Yinzhen
君山银针
Yellow tea of silvery buds from Junshan Island, whose needles float upright when brewed.
Culture
Yueyang's culture is shaped by the lake and by Qu Yuan. Miluo, a county-level city under Yueyang, holds one of the most important Dragon Boat Festival commemorations in China. The lake's fishing communities, and its legends of the Xiang river goddesses, have been subjects for poets from the Chu Ci onwards.
先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐。Xiān tiānxià zhī yōu ér yōu, hòu tiānxià zhī lè ér lè.
“Be the first to worry about the world's troubles, and the last to enjoy its pleasures.”
— Fan Zhongyan, “Record of Yueyang Tower” (岳阳楼记), 1046
Getting around
- Yueyang East station is on the Beijing–Guangzhou high-speed line between Wuhan and Changsha.
- Yueyang Sanhe Airport serves domestic routes.
- Boats cross the lake from the tower area to Junshan Island.
Day trips
Miluo
汨罗
The river town where Qu Yuan drowned, with his memorial temple and dragon-boat races.
East Dongting Lake reserve
东洞庭湖
National nature reserve and wetland of international importance, best for birds in winter.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- Yueyang Municipal People's Government — Yueyang Municipal People's Government (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Seventh National Population Census communiqués — National Bureau of Statistics of China (retrieved 27 September 2026)
- Yueyang — Encyclopaedia Britannica (retrieved 27 September 2026)
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