Porcelain Tower

Reconstructed Porcelain Tower

The Porcelain Tower was a giant porcelain-covered pagoda (Chinese tower) in Nanjing, China. It was destroyed, but a copy has been built beside the Qinhuai River.

The first tower was planned by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming family of rulers in the early 1400s. It was built under his grandson the Xuande Emperor as part of his work on the Great Bao'en Temple between 1428 and 1431. It was 30 meters (97 feet) high and had 9 floors. The top of the tower had a gold sphere that has been likened to a golden pineapple. This first porcelain tower was destroyed by the Taipings in 1856.

After Deng Xiaoping's Opening Up Policy made China richer, a successful businessman named Wang Jianlin gave Nanjing 1,000,000,000 RMB in 2010 to rebuild the Porcelain Tower. The copy and the park around it opened in December 2015.