In 1710, Lijiang Assistant Prefect Fan Jing established the Yuhe Academy at Guluwu, near the cold waters of the Black Dragon Pool. His successor, Yu Wenyao, completed the construction and recorded his high expectations for local education in the Yuhe Academy Record. Under the guidance of scholar Zhang Kuiliang, students arrived with books strapped to their backs, filling the halls with the sound of recitation. This quiet estate initiated formal Confucian education in the region, eventually producing 7 metropolitan graduates and 57 provincial graduates during the Qing dynasty.

Military conflicts in the mid-nineteenth century destroyed parts of the campus. Prefect Guan Xuexuan had previously rebuilt the neglected site in 1739, and the core of the academy survived these upheavals. In 1871, builders added the Shihuang Ancestral Hall to the western grounds. The symmetrical, three-entry courtyard layout remains intact at No. 166 Guluwu Lower Section.

Entering the first courtyard, visitors stand beneath a twenty-meter-tall Magnolia tree. This three-hundred-year-old giant, split down its center by a historic lightning strike, still grows green leaves against the sky. Walking further, the scent of orange jessamine, peach, and crabapple trees fills the middle yard, which serves as the main reception hall. Paved stone pathways, cool to the touch and inlaid with symbolic decorative patterns, lead to the third courtyard. To the right, the two-story wooden wing-chamber creaks softly underfoot. It houses a ground-floor library and a second-floor café, while the west wing provides quiet lodging. Here, blue-and-white Yunnan tie-dyed fabrics dry in the mountain breeze alongside local calligraphy exhibitions.

Designated as a cultural relic in November 1988, the academy underwent a three-year scientific restoration before reopening in late 2025. It stands as a quiet monument where the academic traditions of the Central Plains met the frontier, preserved through centuries of care.