China’s Submerged “Lion City”
By James Donahue
A
popular tourist attraction in China is Qiandao Lake, a man-made lake formed after completion of a 1,531-foot-wide Dam on the
Xin’an River at Zhejiang. The lake is nestled within a lush forest and offers literally thousands of exotic islands.
At
the time the Xin’an Dam was constructed in 1959, it was part of a massive new hydroelectric system and towering at 344
feet, was considered the tallest dam to have ever been built in China.
Hidden 130 feet under Qiandao Lake rests
Shi Cheng, the Chinese name for Lion City. It is an ancient city full of temples, memorial arches, paved roads and houses
that they say stand frozen in time since the day they were submerged as the lake filled.
But there is more. It
seems that the construction of the hydroelectric system also flooded the nearby ancient City of He Cheng, plus another 27
towns, 1,377 villages and nearly 50,000 acres of farmland. Thousands of homes were flooded and about 290,000 people had to
be relocated.
Lion City stood at that site since the Eastern Han Dynasty, estimated at about the time of Christ.
It rested at the base of Five Lion Mountain, thus took its name from the mountain that towered over the town. For centuries Shi Cheng remained a center of politics and economics
for the eastern province of Zhejiang.
Shi Cheng, which had its origins during the Tang
dynasty about 1,300 years ago also existed as an important political and business hub along the Xin’an River.
Area
divers, led by Qiu Feng have been exploring the city. They say the buildings stand completely intact. Even the wooden beams
and stairs are in place as they were half a century ago. Lion City thus remains a “time capsule” from the past.
Feng
has proposed using the submerged city as a visiting place for world diving clubs.
Already there are hourly buses
that bring tourists to Qiandao Lake from the provincial capital Hangzhou, and an expressway links Hangzhou, the lake and the
Cities of Huangshan and Anhui.
Some property along the lake is being developed for private residential and
tourist use.
Qiandao Lake was the scene in 1994 of a deadly fire on a boat filled with tourists from Taiwan.
The fire, which was said to have been caused by arsonists, killed 32 people.
