China Guide
Sichuan and Chongqing
The gorges
The Three Gorges themselves begin at BAIDICHENG, a town located strategically 450km from Chongqing at the mouth of the first gorge. Beyond Baidicheng, the river pours through a sheer slash in the cliffs and into the first gorge, Qutang, the shortest at just 8km long, but also the narrowest and fiercest, its once-angry waters described by the Song poet Su Dongpo as "a thousand seas in one cup". The vertical cliffs are pocked by Meng Liang's staircase, square holes chiselled into the rock, and webbed with wooden scaffolds supporting four two-thousand-year-old hanging coffins.
Through Qutang, the small town of WUSHAN serves as a likely half-day stopover to detour north up Xiao San Xia, the Three Little Gorges, lining the Daning River. On a good day, this five-hour, 33-kilometre excursion offers the best scenery of the entire Chongqing– Yichang trip: beautiful countryside; fast, clear water; tiny villages; monkeys; and the awesome Longmen Gorge. Wushan also sits at the mouth of the second set of Yangzi gorges, Wu Xia, 45km of fantastic precipices.
Farther downstream, Zigui is where 76-kilometre-long Xiling gorge begins, historically the most dangerous stretch and now climaxing at the monstrous Three Gorges Dam at Sandouping. Past here are the sheer cliffs and shifting currents of Nanjin Pass, and eventually journey's end Yichang.