Introduction of White Pagoda
Legend has it that Emperor Qianlong traveled to Yangzhou by boat for the sixth time in 1784 and enjoyed the scenery of Wuting Bridge from above the water, but he said regretfully that this place would have been the same as Beihai but for a white pagoda. His casual remark was picked up by the wealthy salt merchants of Yangzhou who spent one hundred thousand taels of silver to buy a map of Beihai white pagoda from the eunuch and made a white pagoda come into being overnight with salt bags piled upon each other. This is the story of making a white pagoda just one night passed down from generation to generation in Yangzhou.
The white pagoda stands at 27.5 meters tall and there is a Xumi Base under the pagoda. It is a polyhedron with four corners. On each side of the pagoda there are three niches, inside which there engraved Chinese Zodiac. Unlike the massiveness of the White Pagoda in Beijing, the White Pagoda in Yangzhou is slim and graceful, casting beautiful reflections with the Five-Pavilion Bridge.