Anqing Zhenfeng Pagoda

A seven-storey Ming Dynasty pagoda standing on the bank of the Yangtze River in Anqing, considered one of the finest riverside pagodas in southern China and long used as a navigation landmark by Yangtze river pilots.

Zhenfeng Pagoda — literally Suppressing Wind Pagoda — rises seven storeys from a rocky outcrop on the Yangtze River bank in Anqing, the former provincial capital of Anhui. Built in 1570 during the Wanli reign of the Ming Dynasty, the pagoda was constructed to improve the city's geomantic fortune (fengshui), with the riverside position intended to stabilise the qi flowing into the city from the river.

For Yangtze River traffic, the pagoda served a more practical purpose: its distinctive silhouette was a navigation marker visible from several kilometres upstream and downstream, useful at night when river pilots needed to fix their position in a stretch of the Yangtze with several tricky bends. The pagoda is mentioned in historical shipping records going back to the Qing Dynasty.

The pagoda's exterior is clad in grey brick with decorated belt courses at each storey level. Internal staircases allow access to all seven storeys, and the views from the upper balconies encompass the Yangtze's broad reach, the older riverside neighbourhood of Anqing, and in clear weather the opposite Jiangxi shore. The base of the pagoda is surrounded by a small park with stone carvings and memorial inscriptions.

Anqing was historically one of the most important Yangtze port cities, capital of Anhui Province until 1945, and a significant centre of the Qing Dynasty reform movement. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom besieged and occupied the city for several years in the 1850s–60s. Walking the old city quarter around the pagoda reveals layers of this history.