The Pavilion on the Cliff

Penglai Pavilion was begun in 1061, the sixth year of the Jiayou era of the Northern Song, on the Dan Cliffs on the seaward side of Penglai. Unlike most famous towers it has been repaired by successive generations but never demolished and raised again, and it still stands where it was first put up. It is counted with the Yellow Crane Tower, Yueyang Tower and Prince Teng's Pavilion among the Four Great Towers of China, although it is occasionally not listed for lacking a famous literary piece associated with it. The scenic area around it covers 18,900 square metres and is made up of six units: the pavilion, the Tianhou Temple, Longwu Palace, Lüzu Hall, Sanqing Hall and the Mituo Temple, with their attached buildings.

The cliff is the reason for the site. From it the dividing line between the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea is clearly visible, and the mirage of old Dengzhou, the town Penglai belonged to, is listed in Chinese tradition among the four strangest things under heaven and again among the four wonders. The pavilion has been written about by people with very different reasons for going there, among them the poet Su Shi, the general Qi Jiguang, remembered for defending this coast against the Japanese pirates, and the warlord Zhang Zongchang. Inside the tower are inscriptions, couplets and stone carvings left by writers and calligraphers, and the surrounding tourism area is graded as an AAAAA scenic area.

The story that belongs to the place is the eight immortals. In the telling, Lü Dongbin, Iron-Crutch Li, Zhang Guolao, Zhongli Quan, Cao Guojiu, He Xiangu, Lan Caihe and Han Xiangzi drank until they were drunk at the pavilion, then took up their own treasures and went over the sea on the waves, each showing what he could do; that is where the saying about the eight immortals crossing the sea comes from. Penglai is the district from which the Dan Cliffs are pointed out as their departure point on the way to the Conference of the Magical Peach. The legend is told here as the district's own account of itself, and it has shaped the names given to the cliffs and the water below them.