Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower

Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower

Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower is a protected cultural heritage site of Guangzhou.

Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower is located on a small hillside on the western slope of Yuexiu Mountain, overlooking Jiefang North Road.

The earliest water tower in Guangzhou was the Xiguan Water Tower, built in 1908 on Changshou Road. The second was the Dongshan Water Tower, constructed in 1928 at Shipai Longtan in Yangji Village. The third was the Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower, which was dismantled during the Anti-Japanese War. The Xiguan Water Tower was decommissioned and demolished in 1976, leaving only the Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower preserved as the oldest existing water tower in Guangzhou. Relevant authorities plan to convert the Yuexiu Mountain Water Tower into an exhibition hall showcasing the history of Guangzhou’s water supply development. It will display historical water usage and storage artifacts, photographs, as well as modern water purification models and equipment.

In July 1930, the Guangzhou municipal government decided to build a water tower on the former site of the noon gun platform on Yuexiu Mountain. A stone tablet on the southern side of the current tower bears the inscription “Foundation laid by Mayor Lin Yuncai on March 1, 1931.” The water tower was completed on July 23, 1931, and officially put into use on April 1, 1932. Its water supply came from the Zengcheng Water Plant. Extending from the base of the tower were a 30-inch water pipe stretching 13.7 kilometers and a 24-inch pipe over 3 kilometers long. With the top of the tower being over 50 meters higher than the surrounding urban ground level, it played a significant role in improving water supply to the city center at that time. Since then, buildings up to ten stories tall in the urban area could all be supplied with running water.

The water tower is a steel-made spherical structure, both aesthetically pleasing and structurally sound. Built on the foundation of a former artillery battery, its base is anchored with I-beam iron piles, with most of the support structure hidden beneath the battery platform, making the foundation extremely sturdy. The base of the tower stands 2 meters high, and at the junction between the base and the tower body extends a 1.2-meter-wide steel platform encircling the tower. The spherical tower itself is 14.6 meters high with an inner diameter of 12 meters and a volume of about 1,100 cubic meters. At a height of 3.4 meters above the tower base, there is a roughly 11-meter-high ladder-like gauge that indicates the water level inside the tower. At the top of the tower is a circular shaft opening with a diameter of 0.94 meters. Inside the shaft is a copper float ball that controls the water level, along with a maintenance ladder. Above the shaft opening is a small octagonal domed house 2.5 meters high, featuring four round arched windows—each 1.1 meters wide and 0.61 meters tall—with one window on the south side functioning as a door. Outside the tower hangs a curved ladder that allows access to the rooftop house; the ladder can also rotate around the tower for exterior wall maintenance purposes.

Further Reading:

· Fifth Batch of Protected Cultural Heritage Sites of Guangzhou

Yuexiu Park

Guangzhou Zhenhai Tower (Guangzhou Museum)

Five Rams Sculpture

Guangzhou Zhongshan Memorial Monument

Ming Dynasty City Wall of Guangzhou

Wu Tingfang’s Tomb

Site of the Four-Artillery Battery

Tomb of the Shao Wu Emperor and His Ministers of the Ming Dynasty

Ancient Archway of Chuzhi Court