A Wall Across the Yangtze
At Sandouping, the Three Gorges Dam connects power generation and navigation with a reservoir that changed the river and its settlements.
Yichang.
The Three Gorges Dam crosses the Yangtze at Sandouping in Yichang, within the Xiling Gorge reach. Its site divides upstream reservoir water from the river below. The dam is not the end of every gorge landscape: cliffs and settlements occur both upstream and downstream. Looking at that setting is the first step towards understanding what the structure controls.
Sanyu Cave lies near the eastern mouth of Xiling Gorge, in the cliffs northwest of Yichang. Its limestone chamber opens onto a landscape of steep rock and water. Paths, inscriptions and memorial features turn the approach into a meeting of natural form and human marks. The cave’s age as a rock formation and the dates of its inscriptions are different histories.
Yichang
The Earlier Dam at the Gorge Exit
Gezhouba, below Xiling Gorge at Yichang, introduced a large dam and ship locks to the Yangtze before the Three Gorges project upstream.
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A Poet Remembered in the Fifth Month
Qu Yuan’s poetry and the traditions of the Dragon Boat Festival connect Chu’s literary past with boats, rice dumplings and local remembrance.
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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.
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Xiling Gorge on Both Sides of the Dam
The easternmost of the Three Gorges extends through Yichang’s river country, with different water landscapes above and below the Sandouping dam.
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The Writers Who Gave a Cave Its Name
At Sanyu Cave near Yichang, a Tang outing and the later memory of the Su family turn a cliffside chamber into a literary place.
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Three Gorges Dam
A concrete gravity wall across the Yangtze at Sandouping that raised a reservoir over 600 kilometres long and gave China the largest power station in the world.
Gezhouba Dam
An early large dam on the Yangtze main stem, downstream of Xiling Gorge’s eastern exit near Yichang.
Zigui
A mountainous county on the south bank above the dam that claims the poet Qu Yuan as its own and has kept his name through two changes of county seat.
Qu Yuan
The poet associated with Chu whose writings and remembered death form an important strand of Dragon Boat Festival tradition.
Xiling Gorge
The easternmost of the Yangtze’s Three Gorges, with different river landscapes upstream and downstream of the Sandouping dam.
Sanyu Cave
A cliffside cave near the eastern mouth of Xiling Gorge, remembered through Tang writers and later inscriptions.
Photo credits and rights
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Yichang: the city skyline across the Yangtze, with the TV tower and the cable-stayed bridge.Fxqf / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Three Gorges Dam: the dam crest with its red gantry cranes, and the navigation lock pontoon on the reservoir.維基小霸王 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Gezhouba Dam: the ship lock at night, its gates and buildings lit up.Jacky Lee / CC BY 3.0 · CC BY 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Qu Yuan: a traditional painted portrait, with his inscription beside it.Unknown / CC BY 4.0 · CC BY 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Zigui: a sharp, forested rock peak of the Sixi scenic area in Zigui.Zhangmoon618 / CC BY-SA 4.0 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Xiling Gorge: a narrow, misty gorge between steep rocky cliffs on the Yangtze.User:Vmenkov / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
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Sanyu Cave: the cliffside plank road with white railings climbing to the cave mouth.Gisling / CC BY-SA 3.0 · CC BY-SA 3.0 Photo source ↗ Rights information ↗
