Amir&Jeff's Excellent China Adventure #10: Yueyang, Hunan Province. Yueyang Pagoda goes back to 1,400 years and then Mao Zedong made it a modern-day shrine. Short video with a number of photos.

2025-07-23

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Table of Contents

Location

Yueyang (岳阳) Pagoda, Hunan Province

Video

Transcript

Mao’s calligraphic style is so unique and recognizable, that it is a font offered on today’s computers!

This is a reproduction of calligraphy by Mao Zedong, in his very, very unique style. The people venerate him so much, you can see over on the left, what looks like a big oval spot, that’s actually his signature. The people revere him and respect him and love him so much, they touch his signature for good luck.

You have no idea how brainwashed you are about Mao. The Chinese know better.

You all think Mao was a bloodthirsty vampire-monster who killed tens of millions of people, but the Chinese people know better than that. They realize that without him, China would not be where it is today, and that everything that Deng Xiaoping did was built on the foundation that Mao Zedong built, during his era from 1949 to 1978.

No other national leader in human history did so much good, for so many people, in so little time as Mao Zedong.

It’s really hard for Westerners to accept the fact that Mao was actually at least one of the top three national leaders of the twentieth century, for what he did for the people, versus all the lies that you have lived with about the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The Chinese do not have that problem.

Photos by Amir

Chinese parks, tourist and historical sites will usually have English along the Chinese on signs, often with Korean, Japanese and sometimes French and Russian.

On the top (third) floor of the Yueyang Pagoda is Tang Dynasty Du Fu’s famous poem about visiting Dongting Lake and climbing up to this level to see it. This is Chinese culture and civilization. A famous poet comes here 1,400 years ago, writes a famous poem about the pagoda. Then in the 1920s Mao Zedong comes to walk in Du Fu’s steps, pens a famous calligraphic painting of said poem, both of which are honored and revered by the Chinese people to this day and forevermore! When was the last time you have seen and read Western classics?

Mao Zedong’s calligraphic style can be a challenge to decipher, which is why alongside his poems there is often a printed version to read.

Translation

Du Fu (712-770)

杜甫

Climbing the Yueyang Tower

登岳陽樓

I heard of the Dongting River

in ancient times

昔聞

洞庭水

But now I climb

the Yueyang Tower, overlooking it.

今上

岳陽樓

It separates the Wu and Chu kingdoms,

to the east and to the south,

吳楚

東南坼

Holding the heavens and the earth,

and day and night, floating between.

乾坤

日夜浮

Relatives and friends—

no one has written:

親朋

無一字

I’m old and sick

with just a lonely boat.

老病

有孤舟

Arms and cavalry

along the northern mountains forts…

戎馬

關山北

I lean on the balcony,

drifting in my tears.

憑軒

涕泗流

Notes:

Background: This poem was written during the last three years of Du’s life. Du was 57-years old then, suffered from a right deaf ear, pulmonary disease, etc. The last three years in his life was basically spent on a boat, wandering.

(fascinating annotated explanation and meaning of this poem is below in the References)

Jeff searching info on the pagoda before going in.

Info-locked and loaded.

Splendid views from the third floor, overlooking busy Dongting Lake. Tang poet Du Fu and Mao Zedong both stood here, spanning 1,400 years!

Yueyang Pagoda Park is full of trees and gardens. No trash on the ground, no drugs, no pickpockets, no violence, no beggars, no homeless people, no forced Judeo-Western mass migration. VERY relaxing and safe.