The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River is a scenic area along the Yangtze River spanning Chongqing Municipality and Hubei Province. It includes the Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge. With a total length of 191 km, it starts from Baidicheng in Fengjie County in Chongqing Municipality in the west, and ends at Nanjin Pass in Yichang City in Hubei Province. Qutang Gorge, located in the area of Fengjie and Wushan Counties in Chongqing Municipality, is the shortest and steepest gorge. Wu Gorge partly in Wushan County in Chongqing Municipality and partly in Badong County in Hubei Province is famous for its deep valleys and splendid landscapes. The Xiling Gorge, situated in the area of Zigui and Yichang Counties in Hubei Province, is the longest gorge and is known for its dangerous shoals and rapid currents.
The Three Gorges is one of the birthplaces of Chinese culture with many works written about it by poets and eminent writers throughout the ages. Many parts of the Gorges were battlefields during the Three Kingdom Period (220-280).
At the west end of the Three Gorges, the starting point of Qutang Gorge, there is the Baidicheng. Surrounded by water on three sides, it faces the Yangtze River with high mountain at the back, and boasts spectacularly imposing scenery. It enjoys great renown because of the poem Departing from Baidicheng in the Morning by Li Bai, the famous poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). The poem reads:This morning, I depart the town of Baidicheng, engulfed by vibrant clouds.
I return to far away Jianglingjiang within a single day.
From both banks, the steady sound of shrieking monkeys fills the air.
Our little boat has already carried me past thousands of hills.
The earliest record of Baidicheng can be found at the end of the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-25 AD). At that time, Gongsun Shu had set up an independent regime in what is today Sichuan Province. He saw the entrance of the Qutang Gorge as a strategic place that was easy to guard but hard to conquer, and decided to build a great fortress there. Later he heard that a white mist frequently came out of the White Crane Well within the fortress, forming the figure of a dragon. So he rationalized this “white dragon coming out of the well” as a symbol that he would take the throne one day. Therefore he dubbed himself Baidi (meaning White Emperor) in 25, and named it the Baidicheng Town. However, he was defeated by Liuxiu and his city was turned to ashes. During Emperor Gongsun’s reign, Baidicheng enjoyed peace when the rest of the country was plagued by warfare. Therefore a Baidi Temple was built for him and his statue was enshrined in it.
Aside from its natural landscapes, the Three Gorges is also famous for the Three Gorges Hydropower Station, the world’s largest hydropower station. Located in the middle part of the Xiling Gorge, the Three Gorges Dam is over 600 km in length, and the level of the dam at the very top is 185 meters above sea level, with a maximum water level of 175 meters. A total of 32 large generator clusters were installed, each of which has a capacity of 700 MW. The construction of the dam started in 1994 and was completed in 2009.
