Three Gorges of the Yangtze River

Qutang Gorge  
the 8-kilometre-long Qutang is the shortest but  grandest one.

Wuxia Gorge   
Wuxia Gorge  is 45-kilometre-long , is famed for its deep valley.

Xiling Gorge   
Xiling Gorge, about 66-kilometre-long, is the longest of the Three Gorges and is entirely within Hubei.

The Three Gorges is truly one of the most unique wonders on earth. It is a mosaic of inspiring visitors and landscape of unparalleled beauty. A masterpiece carved by winds and waters of time as well as the Orogenesis Movement, this the Great Three Gorges of the Yangtze, one of the nature's finest achievements. In his poem "The Three Gorges", Chen Yi, a general of new China, writes: "How grand and magnificent the Three Gorges are! Only on board a ship can you really appreciate the beauty!" He outlined the features of the Three Gorges with one word "magnificent" and gave encouragement and impetus to the people to tour the amazing gorges.

The Three Gorges pass through the boundary between Chongqing and Yichang with a total length of 193 km long. The Three Gorges include: the Qutang Gorge which features magnificence, the Wu Gorge which features serenity and beauty, and the Xiling Gorge which features numerous shoals and rapids

Qutang Gorge in Three Gorges

The first gorge is very much like a weir and thus came the name "Qutang Gorge". It extends 8 km, starting from Baidicheng in the west and ending at Daixi Town in the east. The old construction complex on the mountain on the northern hilltop is Baidicheng, Immediately below it is Kui Men, the entrance to the first of the three gorges of the Yangtze River-the Qutang Gorge (also known by early Western travelers as the Wind Box Gorge). The shortest but grandest of them all, the gorge's widest point is only 150 meters (500 feet). Mists frequently swirl around the mysterious limestone peaks, some nearly 1,200 meters (4,000 feet) high, and the river rushes swift as an arrow through the narrow entrance, pounding the perpendicular cliff faces on either side of the gorge. It is the upper mouth of the Qutang section and is difficult for access. This gorge was a particularly dangerous stretch during high-water seasons and has been known to rise to 50 meters (165 feet).

Mount Baiyan is partly made of a huge white rock, which is a few dozen meters high and more than a thousand meters long. On its cliff face there are a number of inscriptions carved in styles of cursive, regular,   official and seal scripts. The largest characters carved on this wall, known as Chalk Wall, are the inscriptions of verse originally penned by Sun Yuanliang and Li Haoduan. Sun's inscription goes like this: "Kuimen Pass is the most perilous passage in the world, but our boat lightly passed through." Li wrote in seal script: "Grand Kuimen Pass". Each character is three  meters long.

Close to the Chalk Wall, one can clamber a flight of a few dozen steps to see a huge stalactite rock structure some twenty meters long with a height of six meters. It resembles  a phoenix with its head lifted. A small stream flows down from where the neck would be called the Phoenix Drinking Fountain or  Intermittent Fountain, as there is such a fountain  near the Chalk Wall. Beside this fountain, there is a platform named Phoenix Platform. Standing on this platform, one can see the Baidi Temple, Fengxiang Gorge and an ancient plank road built along the edge of a cliff wall.

Many renowned people have been officials in the Kuizhou area. DuFu (712-770), a great Tang Dynasty poet, lived here nearly two years. During this period, he wrote many poems portraying the landscapes of Kuizhou, the local people and their life and customs. Now there is only a stone tablet remained in his former residence.

When your boat gets to the county seat of Wushan wedged between Qutang Gorge and Wuxia Gorge, you may get off there and take a side trip upstream on the Daning River, the chief tributary of the Yangtze River in the Three Gorges area, and find the Lesser Three Gorges. The Daning River is 300 kilometers long. The 50-kilometres-long stretch from Longmen Gorge in the south to Tujiaba in the north is  even narrower than the narrowest part of the Three Gorges. The Longmen Gorge, the first of the Lesser Three Gorges, also has a little Kuimen. After passing through this gorge,  one can reach Bawu Gorge and Dicui Gorge.

Wu Gorge in Three Gorges

Below Wushan the river approaches the entrance to the 40-kilometre (25-mile) long Wu Gorge, the middle Yangtze gorge that straddles Chongqing municipality and Hubei Province. So sheer are the cliffs that it is said the sun rarely penetrates. The boat passes, on the south side, the Golden Helmet and Silver Armour Gorge (JinKuang Yinjia Xia) shaped, it is said, like an ancient warrior's silver coat of arms crowned by a round golden helmet. Ahead are the 12 peaks of Wu Gorge, famed for their dark and somber grace. Poets have made many attempts to evoke both their bleakness and beauty. The Goddess Peak is the most famous one with different versions of stories. More often than not these green-clad peaks are hidden by swirls of cloud and mist , and are difficult to distinguish, though each has its own characteristics and posture. Whitewashed villages cling to the mountain terraces that produce grain crops and fruits - oranges, apples, apricots, and chestnuts.
It takes twenty minutes to go from the county seat of Wushan to Lu You Cave by boat. Lu You (1125-1210), a well-known poet of the Southern Song Dynasty, once served as an official at Kuizhou. The stalactite cave is named after this poet who passed through the Three Gorges twice and wrote 37 pomes. Tourists can stand on a platform in front of the cave to enjoy the scene below.

Zigui

On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival (the fifth day of the fifth lunar month ), the people of Zigui gather along the riverside early in the morning to watch the boat races, one way to commemorate the poet Qu Yuan who, as the story  goes, threw himself into the river in order to protest against injustice. The mourning local people hoping to find his body beat drums to scare away fish and console the soul of the dead and dropped zongzi, glutinous rice dumplings, into the water in the wish that fish would feast on the zongzi rather than on  Qu. Over the years, this has gradually evolved into the Dragon Boat Festival with people eating zongzi on that day. What is fascinating about this particular race is that at the bow of each boat, there is a man singing for the purpose of calling back the soul of the deceased.

Zigui County in Hubei, situated in the Xiangxi Valley, was once the home of Qu Yuan, the great poet of the State of  Chu in the Warring States Period (475-221 B.C). To memorialize him, a museum has been built outside the east end of the county seat. This structure was built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The stone figure of the poet is displayed here

Baoping Village of Xingshan County at the upper reaches of Xiangxi River is the home of Wang Zhaojun of the Western Han Dynasty who was married to a Hun ruler in order to establish peace. If you set off from QuYuan's birthplace, Sanlu Village, by car, you will reach Baoping in two hours. Though well off the beaten track, Wang Zhaojun's home is frequented by admiring visitors. Nearby, there are many places commemorating her. A few years ago, a beautiful statue of Wang Zhaojun was also dedicated.

There are two villages inhabited by Tujia people standing by the Shennong River. Together called Longchuanhe, the villages, 7.5 kilometers apart, have a population of 300 people. Though rather scattered, the villagers gather to dance all night on the  occasion of a funeral whether they were closely acquainted or not.

Xiling Gorge in Yangtse River

Xiling Gorge starts at Xiangxi and zigzags for 76 kilometers (47 miles) down to the Nanjing Pass and then sharply checked by Gezhou Dam in Yichang. It is the longest and historically the most dangerous of the Yangtze gorges. Before the passage was made safe in the 1950s, 'the whole surface of the water was a swirling mass of whirlpools sucking the froth they created into their centers.' Xiling comprises seven small gorges and two of the fiercest rapids in the stretch of the Yangtze between Chongqing and Yichang.

When the three gorges dam is concluded in the middle of the Xiling Gorge and the reservoir is impounded in 2009, the Three Gorges will take on a new look. Chairman Mao once blueprinted it in his poem 'if Goddess still be there, she is sure to marvel at the great changes ever taken place'茫����

The Gezhouba Dam project was completed in 1989. The dam has several sluice-gates. Some sluice-gates are used for accumulating water for irrigation during draught seasons; some function for generating electricity. But what is most interesting is how boats are lowered or raised by making use of locks. When a boat from the lower level enters a sluice-gate, the gate is closed and the boat is "locked in" between two gates. Then the water level rises gradually until it reaches a higher level. When the other gate opens, the boat has already climbed up to a higher level. Likewise, boats from a higher level could also easily get to the lower level. This scene has now become an added attraction for visitors.

Nanjin Pass, considered the dividing point of the middle reaches and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, is located at the Xialao Stream on the northern bank of the entrance to the Xiling Gorge. It is the east gate of the Three Gorges, just like Kuimen is at the west end. Roaring water rushes out of this bottle-neck and flows into the 2,200-metre-wide part of the river. The landscape is now very different. A new statue of Zhang Fei beating a drum has been erected at Nanjin Pass. It is said that Zhang Fei was appointed governor of Yidu after Liu Bei's  and Sun Quan's armies had defeated Cao Cao's troops at the famous battle of Chibi. He was posted there in order to stop invaders from Sichuan to make sure that Liu Bei could smoothly take Yizhou. Here in Nanjin Pass, a drum tower was built, and during a battle, the drum was beaten to encourage to troops to go forward. It was also used for daily drills.

One of the important historical sights, Huangling Temple, formerly known as Yellow  Ox Temple, sits on a piece of flat land on the southern  bank of the Yellow Ox Gorge within the Xiling Gorge. Legend has it that Yu the Great, when harnessing the raging waters  in the Three Gorges, got help from a yellow ox, the incarnation of God of  the Earth. People offered sacrifices to the yellow ox in thanks and, to memorialize this event, built a temple called Yellow Ox Temple. The main structure in this temple is the Hall of  Yu the Great.

Going further down the Yangtze past the Yellow Ox Gorge, you come to the Bright Moon Gorge, also known as Lantern Shadow Gorge, still within the Xiling Gorge. There are many beautiful scenes along this gorge. The best-known is the Heavenly Pillar Peak, just opposite of Maya Mountain.

Legend has it that one day the Monkey King arrived here. Knowing that  he would soon become a god, he threw his golden cudgel into the river which grew into a peak, hence the name Heavenly Pillar Peak. The cliff of this mountain is so steep that it seems to have been cut by a knife. Only a few trees grow on the edge of the mountain top.

>>>> Three Gorges Info