Yongji City by the Yellow River
With a car, exploring the surroundings of Xi'an feels incredibly free. Today, I brought a friend and drove my Volvo S60 to Yongji City, located right on the banks of the Yellow River. Along the way, he asked many questions about the Volvo—what impressed him most was its safety, along with concerns about expensive parts, maintenance, and repairs. I patiently answered all his queries. It was clear he wasn’t a real Volvo owner, which is understandable; in the past, Volvo parts were indeed pricey, but they’ve improved significantly in recent years. But enough about the car, now let’s talk about the scenery.
The Stork Tower (also called Guanque Tower) derived its name from the storks that once nested on it. It stands on the eastern bank of the Yellow River, west of the ancient Puzhou City in Yongji, Shanxi Province. First built during the Northern Zhou dynasty, the tower is magnificent in structure, ingeniously designed, and set amidst beautiful scenery. During the Tang and Song dynasties, literati and scholars climbed the tower to admire the views, leaving behind many immortal poems, the most famous being Wang Zhihuan’s "On the Stork Tower." I came here precisely because of that poem. The weather here is pleasant, less scorching than Xi'an. After parking and buying tickets, the grand and majestic Stork Tower greets you at once. Inside, you ascend floor by floor, each level displaying different exhibits about the tower’s history and culture. We couldn’t help but marvel at the literary brilliance of the ancients—a single poem made an obscure tower famous across the land, and also supported the livelihoods of the surrounding villagers. From the top, you can gaze into the distance at the Yellow River and the Zhongtiao Mountains. In the late afternoon, with the sunset glow, I truly felt the imagery of “the sun beyond the mountains glows, the Yellow River seawards flows,” and my admiration for the poet’s talent deepened even further.
