Yuejiang Tower
The Yuejiang Tower (it means a towering building viewing the Yangtze River below, in Chinese) Scenic Area is named after its main scenic spot--the Yuejiang Tower. The tower stands high atop the Lion Hill which is located in the northwest of Nanjing and closely adjacent to the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge. The scenic area has a total space of 31 hectares, one third of it covered by water and the other two thirds being land area. The plantation coverage within the area accounts for 85.3%. The scenic area is encircled by the Lulong River and the city moat on three sides and by the city wall built in the Ming Dynasty on the fourth side, taking on a spectacular look of "the city wall surrounded by water, the hill encircled by the city wall and the tower supported by the hill." There are over 30 other historic relics and cultural scenic spots in the area.

The Yuejiang Tower is of a long historical source and profound cultural heritage. Zhu Yuanzhang directed his 80,000-strong ambushing armies in defeating the 400,000-strong armies under his powerful foe Chen Youliang in the Lulong Hill in 1360, laying a firm foundation for establishing the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and making Nanjing the capital. After becoming the emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang climbed the Lulong Hill for the second time in 1374 and then, a turmoil of feelings welled up in his mind. He wanted to have a high building built on the top of the hill, which, supposed to tower into the clouds, should give the climber a far view, to the extent of having a panoramic view with only one glimpse, not only overseeing enemy spies and anticipating enemy activities but also making it known far and wide for his military prowess. For this end, Zhu wrote the Notes on Yuejiang Tower himself and renamed the Lulong Hill the Lion Hill. Then, he ordered each of his official ministers to wrote an article about the imaginary Yuejing Tower. Among those articles, the Notes on Yuejiang Tower written by Grand Secretary Song Lian, was a superb work and passed down for generations with Zhu's. In his Notes on the Yuejiang Tower, Zhu Yuanzhang described the causes, funcctions and patterns of building the imaginary tower. The foundation of the tower was laid according Zhu's assumption and the construction was started and its groundwork was also laid. However, the construction failed in completion because of low productivity and weak economic strength as well as the successive years of war and others. Finally, the building of the Yuejiang Tower was finished in September 2001, and the tower began to be open to visit, puttting an end to the 600-year history with notes but without the tower.

Standing high atop the Lion Hillis, the tower is 52 meters high and has a floor area of more than 5,000 square meters in seven tiers. Taking an L-letter shape in the planar way, the tower's main wing faces north and the secondary wing faces west, taking on a unique "corner of two surfaces". You can watch and appreciate the scenes over and along the Yangtze River from both wings. Climbing up the Yuejiang Tower, you can get a full view of the scenes on the immense river below. The view of all the beautiful scenes of Jinling (the former name of Nanjing) is so panoramic that you will feel relaxed and pleasant, and so much that you can not see over. Brightly lit-up at night, the Yuejiang Tower is crystal-clear and magnificently shining. It is more the best sentiment to watch and appreciate the lights and lanterns near, over or along the Yangtze River and the beautiful scenes of the City from the tower.

Tianfei Temple
In the fifth year (1407) of the reign of Yongle Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, when Eunuch Zheng He succeeded in returning from his first voyage to the Western Seas, Emperor Chengzu ordered to build the "Longjiang Tianfei Palace" at the foot of the Lion Hill, expressing thanks to Tianfei (also called as Queen of the Heaven, Goddess of the Seven Seas) for her blessing and protection of the safe navigaion of the fleet over the seas. In the 14th year (1416) of his reign, Zhu Di inscribed the "Imperially-built Tablet of Hongren Puji Tainfei Palace" on a tablet for the palace. According to records, "the Tainfei Palace consists of 79 front and back halls and other houses, with a surrounding outer wall of more than 181 Zhang ( 630 meters) in length." The palace was damaged several times after the reign of Xianfeng Emperor (1851-1862) of the Qing Dynasty and its former magnicence disappeared completely. In the winter of 1937 when the Japanese occupied Nanjing, the Tainfei Palace was ruined once more in the fire of war, with only the tablet remaining. The tablet was moved into the Jinghai Temple when the "Old Site of Ruined Jinghai Temple" was expanded in 1996. To commemorate the 600th anniversary of Zheng He beginning his voyages down the Western Seas, the Nanjing Tianfei Palace was rebuilt, with the plan to occupy a space of 17,000 square meters and about 5,000 square meters of them as floor area. The first phase of construction was finished in May 2005 and the new palace began to be open to visit immediately. Ooccuping 2,688 square meters, the new construction has restored the magnificent manner of the former Longjiang Tianfei Palace in the Ming Dynasty and become the holy place to attract Chinese and Western people to come here to pray for happiness.

Jinghai Temple
The Jinghai (Calm Sea) Temple, located at the southwestern foot of the Lion Hill, was first built in the 9th year (1411) of the Yongle reign of the Ming Dynasty. It was built by the order of Emperor Chengzu in praise of Eunuch Zheng He for his merits in his navigation to the Western Seas. The temple was given the name of Jinghai by the emperor, meaning all seas were calm (praying for peace). At the initial building time, the temple occupied a space of about 30 mu (2 hectares) and consisted of 80 different halls. Zheng He lived in the temple to spend his later years once, and the rare and precious plants brought back from his voyages to the Western Seas were grown in the temple. In the 43rd year (1516) of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, Li Shizhen--a famous pharmacologist of Chinese medicine, lived in the temple to examine the pharmaceutical plants brought back by Zheng He from his voyages to the Western Seas, and added some to his Compendium of Materia Medica, called Bencao Gangmu in Chinese.

In the 22nd year (1842) of the Daoguang reign of the Qing Dynasty, the war fire of the Opium War forced the Qing government to agree to negotiate with the British force in the Jinghai Temple, and then signed the Nanjing Treaty--the first unequal treaty in the modern history of China.

The Jinghai Temple experienced war fires and saw its ruin and repair many times. In 1937, The Japanese aggression troops set fire on the temple and only 8 monk rooms remained after the fire. The "Old Site of the Ruined Jinghai Temple" was rebuilt in 1987. And in 1990, it was developed to be the exhibition hall of showing historical materials about the Nanjing Treaty and began its formal openness to visits. The "Old Site of the Ruined Jinghai Temple" received expansion in 1996 to meet the return of Hong Kong back to China and an "Alarm Bell" was casted. In June 1997, the exhibition hall of the historical materials about the Nanjing Treaty was named by the publicity ministry of the CPC as one of "One Hundred Nationawide Model Bases for Patriotic Education in China". The temple was enlarged once more in 2004 and occupies an area of 12,000 square meters.