Tang Dynasty poem draws visitors to Shanxi's Stork Tower

A winter sun beats down on Stork Tower, or Guanquelou, a monument in the county-level city of Yongji in north China's Shanxi Province. The Yellow River shimmers in the sunlight, much like it probably did for Tang Dynasty (618-907) poet Wang Zhihuan (688-742) when he wrote the now widely recited poem "On the Stork Tower," known by heart to many people who attended school in China.

"The setting sun beyond the mountains glows,

The Yellow River seaward flows.

One can enjoy a grander sight,

By climbing onto a greater height," goes a translation of the poem.

The current Stork Tower is a reconstruction which broke ground in 1997 and opened to visitors in September 2002. It is a reimagining of a military lookout post that dates back to the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557-581), on the outskirts of the then city of Puzhou situated along the Yellow River. Today, Stork Tower is revered as one of China's most famous ancient towers. Its name is taken from the storks and other birds that reportedly began to live in the original tower from the Sui Dynasty onwards (581-618), when it was no longer used for military purposes. Some of these birds can still be seen in the area today. The current Stork Tower was built a few kilometers away from the site of the original, which was destroyed in a fire around 1222 AD. It was made entirely of wood and had three floors. Today's Stork Tower is 57.4 meters high but the total height of the building including the stairs below extends to 73.9 meters over six floors. It was built next to the current position of the Yellow River, which has moved over time due to natural channel migration. The tower now sits on what was once the riverbed. 

Inside the modern-day tower is a wood carving display that takes us back to ancient Puzhou in Tang Dynasty times. It was considered a major city back then along with Chang'an (today's Xi'an) and Luoyang. The carving illustrates the ancient tower sitting between the city it protects and the Yellow River and a dam wall. Puzhou is depicted as a hub of activity, replete with a drum tower and a bell tower which were used to indicate time in ancient China, a port, and a bridge connecting the city to neighboring areas across the river. Iron sculptures in the shape of horses help to stabilize this bridge. Zhongtiao Mountain sits to the south of the city and Mount Huashan sits to the southwest. Some believe that one name for China, Zhonghua, originated from this place. 

To climb Stork Tower, visitors first must walk through a garden before reaching a staircase. Seen from the vantage point of the tower's upper balcony, the garden makes the shape of the Chinese character 囍, pronounced "xi."

In homage to the tower's links with waterbirds, a lake in the garden, Guanying Lake, was created in the shape of bird wings.

On an upper balcony of the Stork Tower sits a statue of Wang Zhihuan, poised in a posture of admiration of the Yellow River flowing in the distance while holding a calligraphy pen and a sheet of paper. Wang was a native of Shanxi Province; he travelled to Puzhou, climbed the Stork Tower and penned the twenty-character "On the Stork Tower" that came to be included in many famous anthologies.

"On the Stork Tower" is featured in textbooks in Japan and further afield as a representative example of Tang Dynasty poetry. Its message of perseverance and determination has drawn people to Yongji to climb the Stork Tower and gaze at the view that Wang Zhihuan once marveled over.