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Yichang Travel Guide
Yichang Top Attractions
Yichang Attractions
Sanyou cave
At the northern exit of Xiling Gorge and 10 kilometres from Yichang, Sanyou (literally, "three travelers") Cave, offers possibly the best cave scenery in the Three Gorges region. There are two stories related to the origin of the cave's name. The first "travelers" were three of the Tang Dynasty's most famous literati, Baijuyi, his brother Baixingjian and Yuanzhen. In 819 D.C., Yuanhe 19th year of the Tang Dynasty, the great poet Bai Juyi and his younger brother came cross another great poet Yuan Zhen. The three visited the cave together and they played there for the whole night. They said again and again that there was no place better than this fairy cave. Then Bai Juyi wrote the "Preface" to the cave. Thus the cave gained the name after the three poet travelers. These are the early three visitors. After that the Three-Visitor's Cave spread its beauty.
The "Later Three Tourists" were Su Xun and his sons, Su Shi and Su Zhe of the Song Dynasty, each of whom inscribed a poem on the wall. From then on, the cave had greater reputation.
Besides numerous writings by famous ancient scholars on the wall of the Three Visitors' Cave, there are some relics on the top of the mountain, such as LiuFengCity, Zhang Fei's battlefield platform. The Ancient Martial Rampart, ChucaiBuilding, the Valley Pavilion and Zhixi Pavilion were rebuilt ones. Climbing up the building and looking to the west, one can take in the scenery of the Xiling Gorge at a glance. Looking to the east, one can get a bird's eye view of the gigantic Gezhouba Dam. Seeing the Yangtze river flow eastwards and water connect with sky, one may easily get the feeling of "pleasure".
Shennong Stream
Shennong Stream is another tributary of the Yangtze River, and its fast-flowing, crystal clear water runs southwards through deep gorges. The stream races past large and small karst caves, flocks of swallows, sheer cliffs, deep gorges, waterfalls, three-colored springs, rapids, the ancient plank path, a suspended coffin in the cliff, groups of ancient tombs and marvelous karst formations.
Three Gorge Dam
It is 75 years since Dr.SunYat-sen first proposed to launch the Project. Thanks to several decades of extensive scientific research and international cooperation by numerous scientists, scholars and experts of several generations, the extremely complex engineering poser for the construction of the Three Gorges Project (TGP) was finally resolved. These studies provided the scientific basis whereby the National People's Congress passed "The Resolution for the Construction of the Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River".
The dam site is at Sanduoping,Yichang City, Hubei province. The total catchment area is about 1,000,000 square meters and there is 451,000,000,000 cubic meters of average annual runoff.
At the location of the Sandouping dam site, the river valley is relatively open and broad, with a small islet known as Zhoubaodao in the river, which is favorable for a river diversion scheme with phased construction. As regards communications, there is a railway to Yichang and a waterway to the dam site. A 26 km-long expressway has also been constructed from Yichang to the dam site. The bedrock at the dam site is sound, intact granite with a compressive strength of 100 developed. The rock mass has only very slight permeability.
The main elements of the project are the dam, two power plants, and the navigation facilities.
The spillway dam section is in the center of the river channel, that is, on the original main river course, while the intake and non-overflow sections are arranged on each side. The powerhouses are to be located at the toe of the intake section. The navigation structures are on the left bank.The structure of the project are : Spillway , Left Powerhouse,Right Powerhouse,Shiplift,Temporary Ship lock,Permanent Ship lock,Dam Site.
Since the project kicked offDecember 14,1994, it has attracted the world’s attention on it. More and more tourists are coming to see the world’s largestwater conservancy project. Most passengersjust come for enjoying watching this experience and the boat feels and looks something like a toy ship in the hands of a childin the bathtub during the whole process.
Xiling Gorge
Xiling Gorge (Xiling xia) is renowned for being extremely perilous. The gorge, 80 km long, is the longest of the Yangtze's Three Gorges stretching from Xiangxikuo in the east to Nanjingguan in the west and covering two prefectures in Hubei province.
It is at this spot, that the journey appears tobe most perilous; the water is full of turbulent currents and whirlpools and dangerous shoals. At the end of the gorge, everyone crowds out onto the ship deck to watch the boat passing through the huge Gezhou Dam.
Gezhou Dam
The embankment is 2,561m long and 70m high, which controls a drainage area of 1,000,000km2 with total content of 1.58 billion steres. The station possesses of 21 dynamos, with electric energy production of 2,715 kilowatts, about 13.8 billion kilowatt-hours annually.
The project was carried on by 2 stages. The first stage started in 1970, and now has been completed. The navigation was kept unobstructed during the stage. In the second stage the river was blocked and navigation was stopped so as to ensure that the dam could be built smoothly.
The ship lock chamber 3 is 18m in breadth and 120m in length, which allow passenger-cargo vessels and civil fleet less than 3000 tons to pass.
The ship lock chamber 2 is 34 meters wide and 280 meters long and able to contain ships over 10,000 tons. It takes about 50 minutes for a ship to go through it. The second ship lock is one of the rare giant ship locks in the world.
The process of passing the dam itself is a interesting experience.Since the water level on one side of the dam is 30m higher than that on the other side, the boat has to ascend to the other side of the dam to continue its voyage.To do this,the boat sails into a space resembling a huge water tub,and, after the door tothe tub on the lower water side closes tightly, water is injected into the huge tub to raise the boat. When the water level is in line with that on the higher side of the dam,another door on the high water side opens to allow the boat to sail out.