Look closely at the roofline of this twenty-meter-tall wooden tower: from any of its four sides, the overlapping eaves create the illusion of five phoenixes poised for flight. Originally raised in 1601 by the Naxi Mu clan chieftains as the Fuyun Pavilion within Fuguo Temple, the structure has survived centuries of upheaval. In 1639, the geographer Xu Xiaoke slept in its shadow for eight days, writing of its grand, clean halls. Fire consumed the temple complex during the military conflicts of 1864, leaving only ashes. Yet, in 1882, local builders gathered to reconstruct the tower, carving new timbers to match the old designs.

The tower stands on a square base, eighteen point nine two meters wide, following a cross-shaped Buddhist layout. Its weight rests on thirty-two load-bearing wooden columns, including four central pillars rising twelve meters high. Builders used a complex system of interlocking brackets, avoiding nails. They crafted twenty-four flying eaves—eight on the first level, twelve on the second, and four on the third—capped by a gold-plated peak. Inside, the ceiling displays painted Taiji diagrams, dragons, and celestial kings, blending Han, Tibetan, and Naxi artistic traditions.

In 1979, to protect the structure, preservationists carefully dismantled the entire pavilion, transported the pieces, and reassembled them at the northern end of Black Dragon Pool Park. In 1980, the architectural historian Liu Dunzhen studied the rebuilt tower, praising its combination of rigorous northern Chinese rules and the fluid style of northwestern Yunnan.

Today, the tower stands before a moon terrace of carved white marble balustrades. The scent of old pine lingers in the air, and the gold-plated peak catches the mountain light, continuing a four-hundred-year-old conversation between human hands and the Yunnan sky.