Natural Landscape

The Yangtze Three Gorges is one of the most famous and unique scenery and tourism spots in both China and the world.To sail down the river through the exceptional charming scenery in the Gorges is like passing through a corridor hanged with pictures of an ever-changing river-scape. A touch of mystery is added to the scene in the form of plank paths skirting the precipices, ancient coffins hanging impossible halfway up perpendicular bluffs, as well as graveyards of aristocrats of bygone days. On the banks, grotesque rocks stand in great numbers and show vivid lifelike figures. In the Gorges, the river surges and rapids spread all over; in the broad section of the Gorges, you can find a scene of mountain towns and hamlets, terraced fields, dense forests and tall bamboo, and the air scented with oranges and tangerines. The landscape of the Three Gorges has formed a fantastic natural corridor of painting mountains and waters. However, what will happen to the famous landscape of the Three Gorges after formation of the TGP reservoir?

After the reservoir impoundment, a broad lake with a total length of more than 660 km and an area of 1,084 km2 will be newly formed in the Three Gorges region. It is expected that, after inundation, along with the rising of the water level, the water depth will increase while the flow velocity will slow down. Because the state of the river flow tends towards stable, it makes the Chuanjiang channels, regarded as a most dangerous waterway, to be thoroughly changed. Meanwhile, a flat lake scene with clear water and surrounded by wonderful mountain peaks standing erect on both banks will appear in front of tourists' eyes. Due to the rising of water level, the relative height of the mountains above the water surface in the Gorges will be reduced, and the gorge's feeling and the scenery of cliffs and canyons for some parts of the Gorges will be weakened. However, because the water surface will not be enlarged obviously, the visual sense effects of the landscape in the Gorges from a far or middle distance view will remain. For example, Kuimen Gate is renowned for the cliffs closely standing facing each other like a door, its peak stands at about 350 m, when the backwater of the reservoir reaches here, the water level will be raised by about 40 m as compared with the natural flood water level, and only the slope foot will be submerged. Besides, as the Chijia mountain and the Baiyan mountain, elevations of which are over 1,000 m, closely behind it serve as a foil, Kuimen Gate regarded as the grandest view in the world will remain unchanged. On the other hand, the well known twelve peaks of the Wushan mountain all range between 800~1,200 m in height with the famous Goddess peak rising 912 m above sea level. The water level increase there will amount to only 40-50 m. Therefore the Goddess peak will remain tall enough to erect on the summit of the mountains, tourists still need to look up to see its charming face. Some other universally praised grotesque rocks and mountains scenery, such as the monk hanged upside down by the feet, the master and disciples of the Tang monk, the rhinoceros looking up the moon and so on, will be still on the sheer precipice or over hanging on rocks for the public to enjoy. After inundation, except for that the scenes with many shoals, rapids and roaring waves will disappear, the basic looking of grand, spectacle and seclusion for the Three Gorges, however, will not be ruined after the reservoir impoundment. The tourists will still have deep feeling of the poetic landscape as a painting of "the peaks linking with heaven, the boats navigating in the deep gorges like cellar". Not only the beautiful scene of grotesque peaks will not be lessened, the sheer precipice and overhanging rocks still existed, the peaks of full of fairy tales remained at the remote places, some new peculiar scenes will be potentially added. In sum, after impoundment, it will not happen that the Three Gorges will not be seen anymore, as some people worried, but that the Three Gorges will look even more magnificent after the TGP completion.