[2025 Yueyang Attraction] Travel Guide for Yueyang Church School Ruins (Updated Jul)

The Foreign Teachers' Building of Yueyang Church School, also known as Building No. 1 or the Red Building, is the most beautiful structure in the entire Western-style architectural complex of the church school. This two-story brick-wood colonnade structure has a basically square layout, facing south. It measures approximately 13.5 meters in length and 12.8 meters in width, with a total floor area of 346 square meters. The building features distinctive artistic characteristics, employing an asymmetrical layout. The vertical scrolls on the column capitals of the southwest corner colonnade are typical of modern European and American architectural practices. The exterior beams use steel-reinforced concrete prefabricated components, while the interiors and corridors extensively feature intricate stucco high-relief skirting lines, showcasing certain European Baroque architectural style elements. It is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Headmaster's Building (Building No. 2) of Yueyang Church School is a two-story modern brick-wood arched corridor structure featuring "Doric" and its variant column styles arranged in an arch-column structural form. The nearly square layout faces south, measuring 19.4 meters east-west and 16.5 meters north-south, with a floor area of 640 square meters. Granite steps are centrally located on the southern side. The exterior corridor columns exhibit two designs: circular columns on the southern and western sides, and square columns on the eastern and northern sides, forming a 2.4-meter-wide enclosed corridor between columns and interior walls. The lower level is elevated, with wooden floors on both levels surrounded by wooden railings. A National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

I was very happy to come to Yueyang to watch the sunset during the New Year's Day holiday. Traveling in the opposite direction, there was no traffic jam and no queue. However, the haze really spoiled the scenery, so I could only become a high-saturation warrior and take some photos. 🎡Itinerary: If you just want to check in at the core attractions and watch the sunset, one day is enough! 8:30 Depart from Hankou Station, 10:00 Arrive at Yueyang East Station 10:30 Take a taxi to Yueyang Tower, you can visit Yueyang Tower—Baling Square—Dongting South Road together 12:00 Take a taxi to lunch 2:00 Take a taxi to St. Anne's Church—Walk to the former site of the church school—Take bus No. 21 to Piaowei—Take bus No. 21 back to Dongting South Road to watch the sunset 17:30 Go to dinner 19:12 Return to Wuchang Station from Yueyang Station 🚄Transportation: It is recommended to choose Yueyang Station, as Yueyang East Station is far from the urban area. 🍜Food: 1. Yueyang's cuisine is mainly Hunan cuisine. We avoided internet-famous restaurants and chose to eat at a small restaurant called "Ji Pangzi Kouwei Caiguan" hidden in a residential building. The three dishes we ordered were all delicious, recommended! 2. For snacks, we tried the local rice noodles and doupi (soybean skin roll), both of which were good. Doupi is different from the doupi in Wuhan. The outer skin is crispier. 🏠Accommodation: We made a day trip. If you want to stay overnight, it is recommended to choose a hotel near Yueyang Tower, which is convenient to go anywhere. 📃Ps: 1. If you want to watch the sunset, be sure to check the weather in Yueyang on that day and the sunset time. If time is not enough, you can skip Piaowei and watch it on Dongting South Road; 2. The former site of the church school is just an abandoned old school. If you don't take photos, you can skip this attraction.

Yueyang, a small city, hides a beautiful group of western-style buildings. It was built in the late Qing Dynasty and has a history of more than 120 years. It was once one of the earliest universities in Hunan. Nowadays, you can't hear the sound of reading, you can't see the students, only a few lonely western-style buildings stand on the shore of Dongting Lake. The campus buildings are roughly divided into three levels according to the mountain. The top of the mountain is the main teaching area and the main building area. Along the edge of the mountain top, walking in the long tree-lined path, the green brick road under your feet squeaks, the deeper you go into the University of Lakefront, the stronger the retro feeling will be. Plus, the sun is sprinkled from the towering ancient trees, leaving mottled light and shadow on the ground, as if traveling from reality to the movie. Many are typical European-style buildings, basically all are villa-style small western-style buildings. If you look carefully, you will find that these western-style buildings also have some Chinese elements mixed in. You can see the Chinese style in the large corridor and archway buildings. Although the university has a history of 100 years, it only existed for seven years. The rest of the time was constantly reorganized and split into other schools. Walking among the ancient buildings, you can see the simplicity and solemnity of the buildings and feel the precipitation of time.