Yuhuang Pavilion in Weizhou Ancient City | Admire the beauty of the city walls and attics - Yuhuang Pavilion

📍Yuhuang Pavilion This landmark building of Weizhou Ancient City has withstood the test of time for six hundred years. Due to its central location in the Sixteen Prefectures, Weizhou has always been a strategic border town since ancient times. In the second year of the Daxiang era of the Later Zhou Dynasty (581 AD), after Qin Shi Huang destroyed the six states and unified China, this "Jingbian Tower" was built to prevent the invasion of the Xiongnu. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by an earthquake in the third year of the Qianlong era of the Qing Dynasty (1739 AD), and after reconstruction, it was renamed "Yuhuang Pavilion" 🏛 in honor of the Jade Emperor. According to the records of "Weizhou Annals", there were 24 towers on the ancient city walls, but this tower was the most magnificent and imposing. The site consists of two courtyards, with the Yuhuang Pavilion built on top of the city walls. The pavilion's roof features a triple-eaved Xieshan style, with layered floors and pavilions that look simple yet solid. It's a symmetrical structure that I particularly like, flanked by bell and drum towers on both sides. The main hall's ridge is decorated with glazed floral ridges, with glazed coiling dragons and ceramic mythical creatures at both ends, exquisitely unique. Inside the hall, there is a statue of the Jade Emperor, and the walls on both sides are painted with images of the Five Emperors and the Queen Mother of the West, as well as the mythological "Fengshen Map" and "Thirty-Six Thunder Generals" ⚡️. My fondness for the murals made me watch for a long time, and the names marked on them seem to come from the "Thirty-Six Thunder Generals" in "Daofa Huiyuan". There are eight stone steles 🪦 in the corridor in front of the attic, seven of which are reconstruction steles, showing the importance attached to it. Walking around the ancient city wall, one can feel the desolation of the northern wind beneath the strategic border town, overlooking the entire Weizhou Ancient City, wondering what the mood of the soldiers guarding the border was like at that time. Yuhuang Pavilion