Day 9 - 22 Apr 2014

After breakfast there is an excursion up the Shennong Stream.
The buffet breakfast was again of good quality with a variety of dishes.

Shennong Stream is a left tributary of the Yangtze River, located in the Hubei Province of central China. Fed by tributaries some of which come from the Shennongjia Forestry District, the stream flows south, falling into the Yangtze opposite the city of Badong.

Originally the Shennong Stream watercourse consisted of a wild river traversing a tortuous alignment flanked by almost vertical limestone cliffs; however, since the beginning of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam downstream on the Yangtze, the water level has risen approximately 155 metres at the mouth of Shennong Stream (Jin, 2006). The lower reaches of the Shennong Stream are presently a torpidly flowing river, most of whose previously scenic vertical gorge is now submerged. By the completion of the dam construction in 2009, a further 20 metres of gorge will be inundated.

The banks of the Shennong Stream have been inhabited since at least the Han Dynasty; the primary ethnic group of the river valley has been the Tujia people. Early history of settlement in the Shennong Stream Gorge is evinced by the hanging coffins stowed in clefts on the high vertical limestone clefts; it is a puzzle to modern man as to how the heavy coffins were stowed on such steep, ostensibly inaccessible places. The coffins themselves were typically carved from a single layer section of a tree trunk, which was approximately 90 cm in diameter; although the lid section was split off to be separate. Some of these coffins can be seen presently from canoes travelling along the Shennong Stream. The coffins are typically 30 to 150 metres from the bluff top above and 25 to 70 meters above the river surface. Most commonly a coffin rests on two sturdy hewn poles that have been wedged within limestone cleft or cave to form generally level platform. Many of these coffins have been lost or destroyed due to the Three Gorges Dam construction, which has led to inundation of many of these river reaches; some coffins, however, have been retrieved for cultural presentation and archaeological study. For example, one such coffin was retrieved about 10 km west along the Yangtze River mainstream and is preserved on display at the White Emperor's Palace, within an historical Daoist Temple situated high above the inundation level along the Yangtze.


Shennong Stream views.

A visit to a Tujia village which put on a show for the tourists. The show had a number of acts. Most were reasonable. However, the pop music act left me cold and deaf.

Scenes from the village.

The pop tunes 

Back to the river. If you think you might have seen these before you could be correct as this is the return journey along the same route.

After lunch the cruise ship entered the Wu gorge (44km) at 13.00 and  entered the Qu Tang Gorge at 15.00.

A Hanging Coffin

Tour of the White Emperor City 


The White Emperor City or Baidi or Baidicheng is an ancient temple complex on a hill on the northern shore of the Yangtze River in China, 8 km east of the present day Fengjie County seat in Chongqing municipality. The name Baidicheng literally means "White Emperor Walled-city". It has been said that the area was once surrounded with a white mist, giving it a look which was rather mysterious, yet serene - much as what an emperor should be like. It has also been said that someone saw a white dragon, the symbol of the Emperor appear there, that the warlord Gongsun Shu thought this was a fortuitous sign, and so declared himself Emperor of Chengja. Thus Gongsun was said to have founded the city, and so called himself "the White Emperor".
The temple complex is now on an island, due to raised water levels following the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. Many older structures were submerged, and new buildings have been built higher up. The temple complex island is linked to the north bank of the Yangtze, by a bridge. The island continues to be a tourist attraction, with many cruise ships halting for tours at Fengjie.
Baidi is also known as the "City of Poems", because so many poets such as Li Bai wrote about it (see: "Departing from Baidi in the Morning").[1] Another famous and talented poet, Du Fu, resided in Baidi for 2 or 3 years.
Liu Bei, the first emperor of the Kingdom of Shu during the Three Kingdoms era, is said to have died in Baidi; although, according to Records of the Three Kingdoms, Liu Bei died at his palace of Yongangong. The site of Yongangong was located in what is now inside of the Normal School of Fengjie County, a few miles away from the current Baidicheng. Thus, as in other cases, the location of an ancient city is not necessarily the same as the location of a modern city with the same name.
In 2006, the Chinese government established Baidi city as a national heritage site.