Baiheliang () is a rock outcrop in Fuling District,

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, that parallels the flow of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

. In the past, Baiheliang served as an ancient device for measuring water levels of the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, the equivalent of a hydrometric station. The horizontal rock ledge, 1.6 km long and ten to fifteen metres wide, lay submerged under water most of the year, showing its upper face above water only during the low-water season of winter and early spring. The eyes of fish carved on the stone indicate the lowest water levels of the Yangtze River, which made the site a precious hydrographic marker. Baiheliang has been submerged to a depth of over 30 metres behind the

Three Gorges Dam The Three Gorges Dam (), officially known as Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project () is a hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River near Sandouping in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downs ...

. Engraved in the rock are 163 inscriptions and pictures, which include 114

hydrologic Hydrology () is the scientific study of the movement, distribution, and management of water on Earth and other planets, including the water cycle, water resources, and drainage basin sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is called a hydro ...

al annotations, which give detailed records of water levels in the river over 1,200 years, since the first year of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

Guangde Guangde is a county-level city in the southeast of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, bordering the provinces of Jiangsu to the north and Zhejiang to the east. It is the easternmost county-level division of Anhui and is under the jurisdic ...

era, 763; the assembled inscriptions and fish carvings, taken together, formed the longest such sequence in the world. One fish carving originally carved in the Tang dynasty was re-carved at a moment of lowest water in 1685: modern measurements recorded the elevation of their eyes, 137.91 metres, almost the same as that of the zero point of the modern water level gauge. The fish carvings and hydrological inscriptions were virtually unknown in the West until the 1970s, when Chinese experts presented photos of these two fish and hydrological data of Fuling for the past 1,200 years at an international hydrological symposium held in the UK. The best-known of the fish carvings was a 2.8-metre

carp The term carp (: carp) is a generic common name for numerous species of freshwater fish from the family (biology), family Cyprinidae, a very large clade of ray-finned fish mostly native to Eurasia. While carp are prized game fish, quarries and a ...

, carved from a section of freestone. Hundreds of poetical homages to the place were inscribed in rock faces, which have disappeared beneath the rising waters as the dam has been completed. In 2003,

Xinhua News Agency Xinhua News Agency (English pronunciation: ),J. C. Wells: Longman Pronunciation Dictionary, 3rd ed., for both British and American English or New China News Agency, is the official state news agency of the People's Republic of China. It is a ...

, the People's Republic's official

press agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and radio and television broadcasters. A news agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswi ...

, headlined the on-line story, June 10, "Accident-maker reef no longer threatens Yangtze navigation". The inscriptions on the "White Crane Ridge" are on display in the Baiheliang Underwater Museum, which opened to the public on May 18, 2009. Some carvings are also on display in the

Three Gorges Museum The Three Gorges Museum () is a museum in the Yuzhong District of Chongqing, about the Three Gorges and Chongqing. It is one of the largest museums in the country. The museum opened in 2005, replacing the former Chongqing Museum. It is l ...

in the city centre of Chongqing.

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* {{coord, 29.716, N, 107.384, E, display=title, source:dewiki Rock formations of China River islands of China Uninhabited islands of China Landforms of Chongqing Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Chongqing Rock art in China Hydrography Petroglyphs Yangtze River Underwater archaeological sites

See also

References

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