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Wuxi Longguang Tower

Newcomers to Wuxi will be attracted by Longguang Tower at the top of Xishan Mountain. Especially at the beginning of the night, bright lights wrapped the whole tower, and Longguang Tower became a landmark building with great ornamental value.

As a pagoda with brick and wood structure, Longguang Tower has no outstanding appearance, and its natural fame is not as great as that of Suzhou Tiger Hill. But Longguang Tower benefits from its unique geographical location. The low Huishan just highlights its height, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal flows by it, and the river is like a white practice. The two echo each other, and the action is just right. Behind the western hills is Huishan, which is higher than it, so the pattern of water behind the mountains makes the western hills an excellent place for geomantic omen.

When Buddhism prevailed, there must be a temple where there are mountains, and a tower where there are temples. There is a Huishan Temple at the foot of Longguang Tower Mountain, which is full of incense all the year round. There is still an ancient stone building in front of the temple, which is a relic of the Tang and Song Dynasties according to research.

Longguang Tower has been a landmark of Wuxi since childhood. Climbing Longguang Tower was a great pleasure in our childhood. I still remember the anecdote of climbing to the top of the tower to eat dried tofu with my friends when I was a child. I remember that dried tofu was 20 cents a box at that time. We bought a bunch of them for a dollar and enjoyed the scenery of Xicheng at the top of the tower. We had a good time.

Over the years, for common reasons, I have never thought about the origin of Longguang Tower. Let's take this opportunity to talk about Longguang Tower's past lives.

Gu Shan passes through the clouds, and the mountains are all high, with the lowest being the main one. Compared with the vastness of Huishan, the low-lying Xishan just makes it the main mountain, so the tower will be built in the main Yamanouchi. As early as the Hongwu and Yongle Dynasties in the Ming Dynasty, there was a tower on the western hill, which was very different from today's, and was later destroyed and no longer existed. Later, during the reign of Zheng De, Wuxi could not become a champion for a long time. Some scholars say this is because Huishan is a dragon, Xishan is a dragon, and the dragon has no horns, so Wuxi can't be a champion. So in the first year of Jiajing, the local people built a stone tower, and later it was suggested to change it into a brick tower to boost the style of writing. During the Wanli period, a brick tower was built in 1576. Sure enough, Wuxi won the first prize repeatedly, and talented people came forth in large numbers.

But I'm not sure whether Longguang Tower was built for this reason, but the name Longguang Tower is not recorded in the history books. After the completion of the brick tower, it was scrapped after several constructions, broken and repaired repeatedly. In the fourth year of Tongzhi (1865), someone carried lanterns into the tower to catch birds, which caused a fire and burned the top of the tower. Since then, Longguang Tower has never recovered.

During the Republic of China (1930), Mr. Rong Desheng donated money to build a reinforced concrete tower, and now the style is the one built that year. After liberation, the Department of Landscape Architecture renovated Longguang Tower four times, the most recent one was in 1980s. After that, Longguang Tower experienced storms. In 20 18, with the donation of Mr. Rong Zhijian, Longguang Tower started the reconstruction project again, which was completed in 20 19. Now the brand-new Longguang Tower is presented to the world again, and the landmark of Wuxi shines again.