If Xiling Gorges is all about rock formations, then Wu Ling Gorge is all about mountain peaks: Mounting Aloft Peak, Clean Alter Peak, Flying Phoenix Peak, Misty Screen Peak, Assembled Cranes Peak, Congregated Immortals Peak and the most famous of them all and the one seen on the paintings, Goddess Peak. There are more peaks than I’ve named here and we may have seen them but, again, Kathy was a bit short on pointing things out.
The Gorge ends with the snappy named Golden Helmet and Silver Armour Gorge.
The Gorge ends and we dock at Wushan for an excursion up the clear Daning River to view the Lesser Gorges - but first, breakfast.
After breakfast we leave the stability of the MV Yangste Paradise and board long, low, wooden motorised sampans for a 5 hour round trip up the Daning River to view the 3 Lesser Gorges.
The outward trip is against the current and some of the rapids prove difficult for the motor alone, and requires the assistance of a couple of boatmen who, with long metal tipped bamboo poles, add a bit of “punt” power by heaving their bodies forward as the poles hit the riverbed, and following through until almost on their backs.
The boatmen invite some passengers to sit up front outside - inside the seats are cramped and visibility not wonderful. As soon as folks settle up there the boatmen are asking for tips/payment for premium seats. Afterwards the seats are genearlly available for who gets them.
The first gorge is Dragon Gate Gorge which is about 2 miles long. Along the sides of the cliff face are holes (over 6000 spread down the gorge), into which stakes were inserted to support bamboo pipelines to carry brine as well as planks to provide access for maintenance.
The boat then enters the 6 mile Misty Gorge which has scenery of rocks, peaks and caves. It also has, suspended on a precipice, an “iron coffin”, which is wooden, really - this area you will not be surprised to hear is called Iron Coffin Gorge.
We stop for lunch at the village of Twin Dragons before taking in only a small part of Emerald Green Gorge (12.5 miles long). We stop and wander among the pebbles looking for interesting stones - either coloured or with “pictures” on the surface.
The boat heads back to Wushan getting back in half the time it took to get there.
The Lesser Gorges will change dramatically when the three gorges dam is finished, the narrow, shallow, meandering rapids that make up the route will become a half mile wide still lake. How this will affect tourism is anybody’s guess. Certainly the two or three men required to fight against the rapids will be out of a job.
I suspect we will go back some time after 2009, the expected finish date, to see the changes.
Back onto the big boat, and we’re off to take in the beauty of the Qutang Gorge, shortest and alleged to be the grandest.
This is the gorge with suspended coffins, except they have been removed well in advance of the anticipated flooding from the 3-gorges dam.
Other features of this stretch are Binding Dragon Pillar, Beheading Dragon Platform and Unlocked Gates Gorge, all of which we probably saw, but no-one told us about. Something we did have pointed out, though, was the formation Rhinoceros Looking at the Moon because, the Chinese say, it resembles the body of a rhinoceros looking westwards forever enjoying the autumn moon over the gorge gate.
Continuing further, the book tells us we pass Wise Grandmother’s Spring, Bellows Gorge, Drinking Phoenix Spring, Hanging Monk Rock, Meng Liang Stairway, a couple of mountains (Red Passage and White Salt), then it’s Baidi City, Fengjie and the end of the gorges.
We stood and watched the hustle and bustle of loading coal ships and other "city life" until we were called to dinner
Go to Shibaozhai and Fengdu
Copyright © 1997 Andrew J White