Thousand-year-old tower seriously tilting, towed by a cable

"A thousand-year-old tower is seriously tilting, only towed by a cable..." a netizen wrote in his Weibo with photos that caught the public's attention recently.

The tower mentioned is the Yanchang Temple Tower situated in Tongchuan county in northwest China's Shaanxi province. The tower, built in the Song Dynasty (AD 960 to 1279) and believed to be more than 1,000 years old, was included in the national cultural relics in 2013.

Currently the 20-meter-high tower has heavily tilted to the north. A cable which is just a little thicker than a thumb is attached at the 4th stage of the tower. The other end of the cable is tied to a cement pole about 10 meters away.

The conservation status of the tower and its environment are worrying. Weeds, half the height of a man, cover the surroundings of the tower. A chicken farm was built at the north of the tower. Wang, who claimed to be the watchman, said that there are about two thousand chickens raised in the farm.

According to local people the tower has leaned for more than 20 years. It was renovated around 2005. A cable was attached at the time to prevent it from further tilting.

The City Heritage Tourism Bureau replied that the maintenance program has been submitted to the government. Renovations will be organized once it has been approved.