“城南双塔高嵯峨，城北千山如涌波。” This is the verse that described the scenery of Kunming written by Shi Jin of early Ming Dynasty. The East and West Temple Towers which share the fame together with the three towers in Da Li is located at Shulin Street and Dongsi Street and built firstly in Nanzhao Age of Tang Dynasty. They have already 1100 year’s history and proved to be the oldest existing construction of Kunming. If you study in China, you can go to Kunming to visit it. And it is a really good place for the students who study Chinese in China to go to experience the history of Kunming.
One tower is in the east and the other is in the west. They sit against each other and experienced history and difficulties together. They have been repaired for many times to be the witnesses of the thousand-year ancient civilization and culture of the early city, Kunming. The two towers are really important places for the students who study Chinese in China to go to visit. As early as in Ming and Qing Dynasties, the double towers have been one of the “Eight Sceneries of Kunming”. Until 2006, they were approved by the State Council to be one of the sixth important heritage sites under state protection.
The East Temple Tower is on Shulin Street of Kunming and the West Temple Tower is on Dongsi Street of Kunming. Both of the two towers look very antique and classic. They are good for the students who study Chinese in China to take pictures with. There used to be two temples on the east and west sides of Dongsi Street respectively, the east one was called Changle Temple and the west one was Huiguang Temple. The East Temple Tower was in Changle Temple and named Changle Tower.
The West Temple Tower was in Huiguang Temple and called Huiguang Temple Tower. They were all built by Wang Cuodian, the governor of Nanzhao and organizing constructed by the craftsman named Yuchi Mutao. The East Temple collapsed down in an earthquake of Qing Dynasty. Considering the non-sturdiness of the original address, it was moved hundreds of meters to east at today’s site during the reconstruction. This is the reason why the East Temple Tower is not at Dongsi Street, but at Shulin Street. If you visit there you can witness the history of that dynasty when you study Chinese in China.
The students who study in China may want to know the story about them. Both of the East Temple Tower and the West Temple Tower are 13-story temples made of bricks. The height of the East Temple Tower is 40.53 meters and that of the West Temple Tower is 30 meters. They were repaired after the construction. People can climb to the top along with wooden staircases inside the tower and there are four “golden roosters” made from copper sheets on the four up-flying eaves, each of them is one-meter high with a copper tube in its mouth. If you study Chinese in China and go to Kunming for visiting, go there to have a look. There is reed in the tube and the inside of the rooster is empty. It is said that the rooster would “sing” when sharp wind passed by and airflow shook the reed in tube. It shows the wisdom of ancient craftsmen. However, as time goes by, dusts filled with the bodies of the golden roosters so that they can’t “sing” any more. The four golden roosters are still standing on the top of the tower, which makes the tower unique and classic.
It is good for you to know about the history when you study Chinese in China, according to the measuring statistics of cultural relic’s management department to the East and West Temple Towers, the East Temple Tower has been found that the center of its tower top has leaned 52 cm to southwest; the center of the top of the West Temple Tower has leaned 43 cm to southwest. As for this situation, some tourists called the East and West Temple Towers as the “Leaning Tower of Pisa” in Kunming.
About the causes of the leaning of the two ancient towers, one point is that the East and West Temple Towers were built intentionally like this. The leaning direction is just in the drought which is the path of Southwest Wind from Indian Ocean. Therefore, there is the statement that the leaning of East and West Temple Towers is for resisting strong winds. Although this kind of statement has on historical evidences, the flutes which could “sing” in wind in the golden roosters on the top of the tower seem to prove the conceiving that the ancient people built towers by making use of wind directions.