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At Miluo, the poet Qu Yuan walked into the river in 278 BC, and the boats that went after him became dragon boat racing. The story, the races and the festival that now fills the national calendar begin on this water.
Junshan Island in Dongting Lake holds seventy-two peaks, a goddess legend, and the tea that was once a Tang imperial tribute. This is the island, its garden of shrines and bamboo, and what it offers a visitor now.
Yueyang Tower is a wooden pavilion on an old city wall, but its real monument is the 360-character essay written for it in 1046. Here is the building, the essay that made it famous, and the fires and rebuildings it survived.
Dongting Lake is a Yangtze flood basin that four Hunan rivers fill with water and silt, and its shoreline has been moving for centuries. These sections follow the rivers, the drowned and reclaimed land, and the dikes and reserves that manage the lake today.