Qutang Gorge

Immediately below Baidi City is Kui Men, the entrance to the first of the three gorges of the Yangtze River-the eight--kilometre (five-mile) long Qutang
Gorge (also known by early Western travellers as the Wind Box Gorge). The shortest but grandest of them all,
the gorge's widest point is only 150 metres (500 feet). Mists frequently swirl around the mysterious Iimestone
peaks, some nearly 1,200 metres (4,000 feet) high, and the river rushes swift as an arrow through the narrow
entrance, pounding the perpendicular cliff faces on either side of the gorge.

This gorge was a particularly dangerous stretch during high-water seasons and has been known to rise to 50
metres (165 feet). An upper Yangtze steamboat captain recalled how in September l929 the level of water was
75 metres (246 feet), and likened the passage to a trough, with the water banked up on both sides. His ship
became quite unmanageable, and was carried down, broadside on, only coming under control again at the
lower end. He would never, he vowed, try to negotiate it again at such a level.

Two mountains--Red Passage Mountain (Chijia Shan) to the north, once compared to a celestial peach, and White Salt Mountain (Baiyan Shan)
to the south form the Kui Men entrance, their steep precipices like the wings of a giant door guarding the tumultuous waters.

At the highest point above Hanging Monk Rock one can see Armour Cave (Kuanaiia Dong) where it is said a Song-dynasty woman general hid
her weapons. In 1958 the cave was explored and found to contain three 2,000-year-old wooden coffins from the Kingdom of Ba, in which were
bronze swords and lacquered wooden combs.

Near the Meng Liang Stairway is the Drinking Phocnix Spring, a stalagmite in the shape of a phoenix drinking the sweet spring--water. Nearby is
the Chalk Wall (Fengbi Tang) where 900 characters, dating from the Song dynasty, have been carved by famous calligraphers on the rock face.
The site derives its name from the limestone powder which was used to smooth rock surfaces before being carved.

Two kilometres (1.2 miles) further, the Baozi Tan (a triple rapid) and the XiamaTan used to be serious dangers to shipping at low-water level. A
traveller on one of the Yangtze steamships in the 1930s remarked : Only the throbbing of the engines as the bow entered the most turbulent part
of the rapid, and buried its nose deep in the boiling water, revealed its presence to the uninitiated. But on looking back one could see that there
had been a drop of two or three feet in the water where the rapid was most violent. Above it was a series of whirlpools and races.

Wuxia Gorge

Xiling Gorge