This pavilion stands as a monument to a promise kept in reserve. Built in the 1930s by General Yu Hanmou, the structure takes its name, "Houle" (After Joy), from the Song Dynasty statesman Fan Zhongyan’s famous edict: to bear the world’s worries before its people do, and to enjoy its pleasures only after they have. There is a distinct tension in a military strongman of the Republican era—a time of fragmentation and looming war—appropriating the moral high ground of a Confucian scholar.

Yu used concrete and stone to anchor a political statement amidst the natural limestone peaks. While the open-sided architecture invites the breeze and frames the serene water of Star Lake, the name serves as a stern corrective to the leisure it provides. It suggests that the beauty before you is earned rather than given. Sitting here offers a vantage point over the physical landscape of Zhaoqing and the psychological landscape of Chinese leadership, where the legitimacy of power is historically tied to the postponement of personal happiness.