Taibai Tower 太白楼

About Taibai Tower

The tower takes its name from Li Bai, who is recorded as having lodged in Jining, then called Rencheng. The municipal culture and tourism bureau describes it as the oldest surviving building in China dedicated to the poet's memory. Its present position dates from 1391, when the Jining garrison commander Di Chong rebuilt the tower east of the south city gate and dropped the character for wine from its earlier name. The building that stands there now sits on Jining's Ming-dynasty city wall.

Its proportions are recorded in detail: seven bays wide, about thirty metres east to west, thirteen metres deep and fifteen metres high, carried on a two-storey double-eaved xieshan roof of grey brick and tile with railed galleries running around it. Since 1986 the tower has served as the Jining Li Bai Memorial Museum, which the bureau lists as a national second-grade museum on a provincially protected heritage site. The grounds cover about six thousand square metres and the tower itself roughly seven hundred.

What to look for

• The double-eaved xieshan roof and the railed galleries that wrap around both storeys of the tower
• The stretch of Jining's Ming city wall that the tower is built on, and the old canal channel running below to the south
• The museum's collection of 45 items and sets of stone inscriptions from successive dynasties
• The permanent exhibition 'Shixian Taibai, Shiyun Qilu', which follows Li Bai's life, his years in Jining, his connection with Du Fu and the tower's own history

Location & getting there

Getting to Taibai Tower

Check which interiors and courtyards are accessible. Active places of worship and protected monuments may have different visitor rules.

• Search for 太白楼 with 济宁市 and 任城区.