Zigui’s former county seat was relocated for the Three Gorges reservoir, with the new seat established at Maoping near the dam. The move changed streets, shorelines and the practical relation between town and river. A view of the present waterfront is therefore also a view of a settlement shaped by a major modern project.
From the journal
Zigui Keeps Its Poet as the Town Moves
In Zigui, the relocation of the county seat and Qu Yuan memorials places a literary hometown within the changing Three Gorges landscape.
In the same city · Yichang ↗
A county seat on higher ground
The poet’s hometown tradition
Zigui is closely associated with Qu Yuan’s birthplace and family memory. Memorial buildings and local festival traditions make that association visible. The hometown story is distinct from the account of his death in the Miluo River in Hunan. Keeping those places separate gives readers a clearer picture of how one poet can be remembered through several landscapes.
Moving what a place remembers
Qu Yuan memorials and other cultural remains were relocated or reconstructed as water levels changed. A moved building preserves some things while changing others: objects and forms may survive while their relationship to an earlier street or bank is altered. Zigui’s story joins the continuity of a name to the physical work of making a town on a new site.