In AD 193, the poet Wang Can fled the ruins of Chang'an, carrying his unfulfilled ambitions to Xiangyang. For fifteen years, the local governor Liu Biao kept him politically sidelined. Wang Can spent his afternoons climbing the cold stone of the city wall, staring toward his distant home through tears of exile. His grief crystallized into "Fu on Ascending the Tower," a masterpiece of homesickness.

During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, Prefect Zhou Shaoji built a monumental tower on the southeastern corner of the city wall to honor Wang Can's literary ghost. He commissioned his friend Wang Shizhen to write its history. Over the centuries, the tower weathered cycles of ruin and rebirth. Acting prefect Hu Yi rebuilt it in 1760. In 1876, searchers pulled a stone carving from the rubble, inscribed with "The Gentleman's Style" by the early Qing official Zhao Zhaolin, and embedded it directly into the masonry.

War eventually claimed the structure during the early Republic of China. When the city reconstructed it in 1993, builders lacked original blueprints. They modeled the new seventeen-meter-tall wooden and brick tower after the lost Kuixing Tower, which had perished in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Today, the double-story, hip-roofed structure stands over a 650-square-meter footprint, overlooking the widest stretch of the ancient moat. Visitors climbing its creaking wooden stairs feel the sweeping wind off the Han River and see the blue silhouette of Mount Xian. Inside, the rough 1876 stone carving remains a tactile link to the past. On the opposite northwest corner of the fortress stands Lady City, a military bastion. Together, these two structures form a balanced pair, representing the dual literary and military heritage of Xiangyang.