We returned to Yueyang due to the 60-year flood of the Yangtze River. Viking River Cruises made some quick arrangements so we could tour the famous Yueyang Tower and the local marketplace.
 
The Yueyang Tower is an ancient Chinese tower in Yueyang, Hunan Province, on the shore of Lake Dongting . Alongside the Pavilion of Prince Teng and Yellow Crane Tower, it is one of the Three Great Towers of Jiangnan.
 
The history of Yueyang Tower dates from the Three Kingdoms Period, when Lu Su, commander in chief of the forces of Wu, was sent to the area to fortify it and train the fleet there. To ease the inspection and command of ships he constructed a tower near the strategic location where Lake Dongting joins the Yangtze River, from which the whole of Lake Dongting was visible. This inspection tower, then called the Ba Ling Tower after the nearby city of Ba Ling, was the first incarnation of Yueyang Tower.
 
Like the other two great towers of Jiangnan, Yueyang Tower is famous partly due to its literary associations, namely the piece Yueyang Lou Ji, loosely translated as Memorial to Yueyang Tower, written by renowned Song poet Fan Zhongyan at the invitation of his friend Teng Zijing, who in 1044 became local governor and rebuilt the tower, and subsequent play Yueyang Tower by one of the most renown Chinese dramatists Ma Zhiyuan in the Yuan Dynasty era.