Yueyang

Yueyang, a bright pearl beside the Dongting Lake, is an important historical and cultural city in the Yangtze River valley.

It learns on Mufu Mountain to the east, faces the Dongting Lake to the west, borders the Yangtze River to the north, and connects the Xiang, Zi, Yuan and Li rivers to the south. With beautiful scenery, pleasant climate, fertile lands and rich products, Yueyang is reputed as the Land Flowing with Milk and Honey. It has now been listed as a Grade-A tourist city open to the outside, and is the hometown of the world dragon race culture.

Yueyang is the only port along Yangtze River in Hunan Province, a center of the small triangle comprising Wuhan, Changsha and Sanxia, and the big triangle comprising East China, Southwest China and South China, and a transportation pivot in eastern China. Transportation on the Yangtze River can lead you to the southwestern border area upstream via Chongqing, and facilitate you to travel across the oceans downstream via Shanghai. The economy in Yueyang holds an important position in China. In June 1992, Yueyang was proclaimed as an open city along the Yangtze River.

The famous Yueyang Pavilion, located at the western city gate of Yueyang, is one of the three noted pavilions south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China. It is said that the pavilion was once the parade terrace where Lu Su, a general of the Wu State in the Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), trained the navy. When rebuilt in 1045, Fang Zhongyan was invited to write a poem in memory of the event. In his poem, Fang described the beauty of the structure and indicated his concern about the country and people. The poem was applauded and won the pavilion great fame.

More than 800 years ago, Huang Tingjian, a celebrated poet of the Song Dynasty (960-1279), also wrote a poem for the Yueyang Pavilion when he visited here.