Pavilion of Prince Teng

Overview

About

The pavilion stands on Yanjiang North Avenue by the river in Nanchang, facing Meiling across the water, one of the three great towers of the south, “the first tower on the West River”. Wang Bo’s famous preface has a celebrated line on the sunset clouds and a lone duck, the autumn river meeting the sky.

The third stamp of the 1987 set T121 “Famous Towers of China” shows the pavilion.

Wang Bo’s “Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion”, written for a banquet at the pavilion, praises Hongdu and its gathered talents, describes the autumn view of hills, river, boats and geese from the pavilion, laments his own frustrated career, and ends with a short poem on the empty pavilion beside the ever-flowing river.

The pavilion was first built in 653 by Li Yuanying, Prince of Teng and son of Emperor Gaozu of Tang, after whose title it is named; it was rebuilt many times afterwards.

The present building was begun in 1985 and completed in 1989; the main pavilion is 57.5 m high with nine floors, three visible from outside and seven within, after Song models.

The couplet at the main entrance, Wang Bo's lines on the sunset clouds and the lone duck, is in Mao Zedong's handwriting.

Travel tips

Getting there: Mount Mei is north-west of Nanchang, about 18 km from the city centre; buses and taxis reach the park. The Pavilion of Prince Teng stands on the Gan River in the city and can be reached by metro or bus from Nanchang West station and Nanchang station.

Pavilion of Prince Teng: it stands on the east bank of the Gan River, and is one of the three famous towers south of the Yangtze. The present structure was rebuilt in the 1980s. From the upper floors you look over the river and the city, and inside are exhibition rooms, including material on Wang Bo's Preface to the Pavilion of Prince Teng.

Nearby

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