Leaning Tower of Qianwei

Leaning Tower of Qianwei

The Leaning Tower of Qianwei is a cultural tourism attraction.

Leaning Tower of Qianwei

Leaning Tower of Qianwei The Leaning Tower of Qianwei, anciently known as the Crooked Tower of Ruzhou, is located in Qianwei Town, about 27 kilometers southwest of Suizhong County. This tower was built during the Northern Wei Dynasty, over 1,400 years ago. It is now a municipal-level cultural heritage site. The leaning tower is approximately 10 meters tall, constructed from blue bricks, solid and single-layered, divided into three tiers in an octagonal shape. Although the tower has withstood a thousand years of wind and rain erosion, the carved brick patterns on its surface remain clearly visible. Though not towering into the clouds, when you look up, its soaring eaves give it a majestic presence.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy is world-famous for having the greatest tilt among towers, at 5.3 degrees. However, the Leaning Tower of Qianwei has a tilt of 12 degrees. Its top is displaced by 1.7 meters, yet it remains leaning without falling and crooked without collapsing. There is no record of when the tower began to lean, but there are accounts of reinforcement efforts. The "Suizhong County Annals" state: “Its tip is crooked yet does not fall; later, a Taoist priest reinforced its base with bricks and stones, making it even more stable.” The fact that the “Leaning Tower does not fall” is considered a treasure of Qianwei. Even after the strong earthquake in 1976, the tower neither collapsed nor developed any cracks.

The leaning tower in Qianwei Town, Suizhong County, Huludao City, Liaoning Province, was built during the Liao Dynasty and is also known as the Ancient Tower of Ruzhou. The remaining tower is 10 meters tall, leaning 12 degrees toward the northeast, with its top displaced horizontally by 1.7 meters. Despite multiple earthquakes and floods since its construction, the tower has always remained leaning but never fallen.

When it comes to leaning towers, the first one that comes to mind may be the world-renowned Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, which has stood tilted for centuries without falling. Although the Leaning Tower of Pisa enjoys high global fame, it is not the most tilted tower in the world. In fact, the “World’s Most Leaning Tower” is the “Qianwei Crooked Tower” located in Qianwei Town, Suizhong County, Liaoning Province. Its degree of tilt surpasses that of any other leaning tower in China or abroad, and it was completed more than 300 years earlier than the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy.

When was the “Qianwei Crooked Tower” built? One theory suggests it was built during the Northern Wei period, but experts, based on the architectural style of the tower, infer that it was likely constructed in the mid-to-early Liao Dynasty, about a thousand years ago. Today’s Qianwei Town was the county seat of Laizhou’s Laibin County during the Liao Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty established Ruzhou in this area, hence the Qianwei Crooked Tower is also called the “Ancient Tower of Ruzhou.”

Due to a lack of historical records and unearthed inscriptions, the exact construction time of the crooked tower remains a mystery. Compared to other stone pagodas from the same period, the Qianwei Crooked Tower is not large in scale. It is a solid, dense-eave brick pagoda with a stone foundation, built with bricks, and divided into three octagonal tiers. The tower body features carved brick images of Buddhas, patterns, and lion heads, with clear lines and exquisite craftsmanship. The tower has a single spire; the top originally had a cover, but it has now collapsed and is incomplete. The current height of the tower is about ten meters. The original flying Apsaras brick carvings and Buddha statues in the niches on the tower have all been stolen and destroyed. Many of the blue bricks at the base of the tower have been artificially removed, exposing very uneven stone stubble. The top and surroundings of the tower are covered with withered grass, making this thousand-year-old leaning tower barely recognizable.

Since the Qianwei Crooked Tower is nearly a thousand years old, it is impossible to determine when it began to lean. The true cause of the tilt may also remain an eternal mystery. Experts, after consulting historical texts and years of research, boldly speculate that the tilt was caused by earthquakes. Because the Liaoxi Corridor has historically been an area of active seismic activity, a major earthquake occurred in the second year of the Longqing era of the Ming Dynasty (1568 AD), during which even the sturdy fortress walls of Ningyuan Guard City (now the ancient city of Xingcheng) outside the pass collapsed. Many houses in Ningyuan and Qianwei were left severely damaged. It is very possible that the Qianwei Tower began to tilt due to that seismic disaster. Of course, factors such as groundwater erosion and wind could also have played a role.

According to the "Suizhong County Annals," measurements taken over thirty years ago showed that the tower body leaned 12 degrees toward the northeast, with its top displaced by 1.7 meters. Over the centuries, despite multiple earthquakes and floods, the tower has always remained leaning without falling and crooked without collapsing, thus earning the nickname “the Strange Tower.” The Qianwei Crooked Tower can be regarded as a gem among China’s leaning tower architecture.