On a circular island in Wuhan‘s East Lake, the Xingyin Pavilion rises to a height of 22.5 meters. Built in 1955, this three-story structure is accessible via the Hefeng Bridge, honoring the ancient Chu State poet Qu Yuan. The name of the pavilion comes from the “Fisherman” section of the Songs of Chu, which describes the exiled poet wandering and chanting along marshy banks.

The building exists because of human determination. In 1952, Zhang Nanxi, a veteran of the 1911 Revolution, proposed a monument to Qu Yuan. The historian Guo Moruo suggested the name and brushed the characters for the horizontal plaque. The designers of the era conceived a square, twelve-meter-wide base. They used reinforced concrete to mimic traditional brick-and-wood architecture, crowning the structure with a pyramidal roof and flying eaves covered in green glazed tiles. Inside, red circular columns frame a steep spiral staircase that forces visitors into a slow, deliberate ascent to the upper floors.

In 2025, the pavilion was recognized as a twentieth-century architectural heritage site. Visitors standing by the open windows can hear the lake water lapping against the stone banks. They look out over the same waters where red-billed gulls gather in winter and lotus flowers bloom in summer, connecting a modern city to a poet who walked these shores two thousand years ago.