Yellow Crane Tower
Photo: Own work — CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Yellow Crane Tower, located in Wuhan, China, is a historic landmark offering panoramic views of the Yangtze River and cultural exhibits.
Planning your visit
The Yellow Crane Tower has been destroyed and rebuilt at least a dozen times since the third century, most recently in 1985 in reinforced concrete a kilometre from the original site, which the Yangtze bridge now occupies.
That would make it a reproduction anywhere else. In China it is something different: the tower exists in the poetry more than in the masonry. Li Bai, Cui Hao and Mao Zedong all wrote about it, and Cui Hao's eighth-century poem is among the most memorised in the language — the tower is a literary place that happens to have a building on it.
Five storeys of exhibits cover that history, with calligraphy, paintings and models of the successive towers, and the top gives a wide view over the Yangtze and Wuhan's three cities.
Allow two hours. Current availability is shown below.
Before you book
Where is Yellow Crane Tower?
Yellow Crane Tower is in Wuhan, China. The map on this page marks its exact location.
How long should I allow for Yellow Crane Tower?
Allow two hours. That is the time the collection itself takes at an unhurried pace, before any queue.
Do I need to book Yellow Crane Tower in advance?
Tickets can be bought on the door at quiet times, but booking ahead fixes the date and avoids the queue at busy ones. Live availability is shown on this page.
