Introduction

Jiaxiu Tower is a big wooden tower built on a huge turtle-shaped rock on the Nanming River which is located in downtown Guiyang in Guizhou Province. The tower was initially built during the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644 but its lower tower has been renovated up to six times. The building was constructed in 1597 then it was for the first time destroyed in 1621. Later it was then rebuilt and named Laifeng Pavilion but it was then destroyed again to be rebuilt and renamed Jiaxiu Building in 1689 during the Qing Dynasty between 1644 and 1911. The structure seen today was built in 1909.  The tower is located in a beautiful landscape surrounded by hills and waters hence its name Jiaxiu which means best and graceful in Chinese. The environment is serene full of cottages and is the most beautiful as the seasons change inspiring artists and painters to create pieces inspired by this environment. The tower is made up of three storeys standing at a height of 20 meters supported by stone pillars and is topped with green tiles and red girders in a quadrangle shape. Inside the tower are precious stones and wooden inscriptions like a couplet made up of 206 characters written by a scholar of imperial Academy of the Qing Dynasty, Liu Yushan. This couplet is the longest and oldest among other couplets describing geographical changes alongside historical vicissitudes of Guiyang.

Things to see and do on a visit

Fuyu Bridge

On a visit, tourists can see the Fuyu Bridge with a stone wood memorial archway inscribed with the words Chengnan which are the South City’s Remains.  This bridge is the longest bridge in Guiyang City and it measures about 300 feet in length by 23 feet in width. The bridge is adorned with white stone parapets that look like jade ribbons over the Nanming River hence the name Fuyu Bridge which literally means the floating Jade Bridge that spanning up to 92 meters in length. The bridge is solid and strong and has over the years overcome hard-hitting floods like the 1996 great floods.

On the bridge is a Hanbi Pavilion and the Bridge was initially nine arched but now only seven are seen today with the other two approaching the riverbank being paved to become roads. At the front of the building, there were two iron pillars with one built in commemoration to a minister of the Qing Dynasty who had successfully suppressed a revolt of the local Miao people and the other was set up to praise a general in Qing Dynasty who had successfully suppressed the insurrection of the Buyi People. The pillars were moved to Guizhou Museum after the founding of the People’s Republic of China

The building of Jiaxiu Tower

Visitors can see the Jiaxiu Building made using the design of typical Chinese architecture with flying ridges, supporting stone pillars, overhanging eaves and carved railings. In ancient times, scholars studied so much for the scholarly honor which is also known as the official rank. In order to motivate them, the local majesty oversaw the construction of the tower conferring it the name of Jiaxiu which literally means "getting the first place in the imperial examinations". Ever since the tower was built, Guizhou has produced three top one Scholars and two of them live near the Nanming River. Up to date, Guizhou remains a propitious place with numerous emerging talents.

The night views of the tower are completely impressive and are decorated with colorful lanterns that magically reflect on the water to create the most spectacular scenery. Strolling on the bridge during the cool summer evening is also a favorite pass time activity among locals and tourists.

Cuiwei Garden

The Cuiwei Garden is an ancient architectural complex of the Ming and Qing style made up of the Gongnan Pavilion, Cuiwei Pavilion and the Longmen Academy. This garden has a newly constructed exhibition hall that displays traditional costumes of different ethnic groups living in Guizhou Province such as Miao, Yi, Gejia, Dong, Shui, Tujia and Buyi. These ancient costumes display handiwork, embroidery and batik spelling out the rich yet colorful Chinese ethnic culture.