National Cultural Heritage - Luoxing Tower in Fuzhou

Luoxing Tower, also known as China Tower or Grinding Heart Tower, is located on Luoxing Mountain in Mawei District, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, and is a remnant of ancient architecture from the Ming Dynasty. Luoxing Tower serves as a navigational lighthouse, a symbol of the Fuzhou port, and is recognized internationally as one of the important sea marks. It is marked on many world nautical charts. The tower is an octagonal seven-story imitation pavilion-style stone tower, built with granite, and is solidly constructed. In front of Luoxing Tower, there is a couplet from the Qing Dynasty, which reads: 'Morning and evening tides, long and ceaseless flow.' This couplet can be interpreted as 'Morning tides, tides in the morning and evening; constantly rising, constantly rising and ebbing.' The couplet was written in the early Qing Dynasty, and the author is unknown. It uses the characteristic of multiple pronunciations for a single Chinese character to depict the daily rise and fall of the river tides. Luoxing Tower is hollow, with a total height of about 30 meters and a base diameter of 8.6 meters. Each level of the tower has eaves and platforms, with arched doors and stone railings, and the doors and windows of the tower body adopt Southern Chinese style. Visitors can climb up the tower. There are eight Buddhas at the corners of the eaves, and bells hang below. At the top of Luoxing Tower, there was originally a small window for the keeper to light the lamp for navigation. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, a typhoon blew away the tower spire. During reconstruction, the Mawei Shipyard specially made an iron ball nearly seven meters in circumference to serve as the spire. The base of the iron ball is broad, allowing visitors to sit steadily on it and look out over the railing. Luoxing Tower's zero point is the benchmark for surveying in the entire Fujian province. Around Luoxing Tower, many cliff inscriptions, stele inscriptions, and remnants of ancient forts and battlements from the Ming Dynasty to the Republic of China period are preserved. On May 3, 2013, Luoxing Tower was announced by the State Council of the People's Republic of China as the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.