Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiangyan Irrigation System
Mount Qingcheng and the Dujiang Irrigation System are two separate sites located in the Sichuan province of southwest China. Mount Qingcheng is the intellectual and spiritual centre of Taoism, while the Dujiangyan Irrigation System is an ancient water management system that has survived up to the present day.
As early as the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE), Mount Qingcheng was recognized as one of the eighteen sacred mountains and rivers used for sacrificial purposes. The eleven Qingcheng Taoist temples can be compared to the
Ancient Building Complex in the Wudang Mountains, but the former have a simpler style using the traditional architecture of western Sichuan and are considerably older.
The origins of the Dujiangyan Irrigation System date back to 256 BC, when the provincial governor Li Bing set up an irrigation scheme to the counter the devastating flooding caused by the Min River. His system makes subtle use of the local topography. It splits the Min into an inner flow for irrigation and an outer channel for flood control. The original system has been preserved, but modern building materials and technology have been utilized to enable this ancient system to conform with the requirements of the present day.
Visit August 2007, November 2007
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The night before I visited Dujiangyan, I had dinner with an Australian girl that I met earlier that day. She planned to go horseback riding in Songpan, a four day trek. “I’m going to visit an irrigation system tomorrow” is what I told her. “It’s an ancient one”, I added. But I already lost her interest. Sometimes it’s hard to explain being a WHS traveller. I really did look forward visiting this site though, wondering what would be there to see. And I don’t like horses anyway.
The next day I took a public bus to Dujiangyan, a city about 60 km to the northwest of Chengdu. At the city entrance there’s a most amazing sight: a huge rock (measuring at least 150 x 30 meter) with a golden horse statue on top, and a sign “Top Tourist City of China”. Well, for sure I wouldn’t be the odd visitor here. Direct tourist buses to Mount Qincheng are available from the city's modern main bus station, but I opted for city bus #4 to the irrigation system.
Anticipating this visit I had had visions of muddy fields, me being the only visitor trying to find my way and pick up at least some of the story. The entrance to the Dujiangyan Irrigation System however looked like one for a theme park. A well signposted hiking route leads you through the park and its main sights. It’s quite a walk, but you can also hop on one of the golf carts that shuttle passengers. The site even has signs in German! Although I must say that the explanations lost a lot of depth in the multiple translations, 10 sentences in English usually resulted in 3 German sentences.
It’s rather difficult to make a water management site attractive to a non-specialist visitor. The Chinese have made the most of it by including a park with a water theme, large explanation signs at the points of interest and maintaining some shrines dedicated to the victims of the floodings and to Erlang Shen, a Chinese god with a third true-seeing eye in the middle of his forehead who helped Li Bing with his work. Highlights for me were the Erwang temple and the Anlan Suspension Bridge.
P.S. November 2007: I did visit the other half of this WHS (Mount Qingcheng) at the end of my trip around China. I focussed more on its natural features than on the Taoist heritage. See my review of the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries for that. I added some Qingcheng-pictures in the picture gallery below too.
More photos can be found in the Picture Gallery
Reviews
Zack Culvert (USA):
While visiting Jiuzhaigou (see review)in China, you want to score a few WHS, take a half day to visit this site of the oldest continuously used waterworks in the world. (2300 years)
I hired a car (busese are also available, but it's local Chinese)from Chengdu, the jumping-off point for Jiuzhaigou and Tibet. While there, also cover the museum at Sanxingdui, which features larger-than-life bronze statues and figurines from the lost civilization (3-4,000 years old)discovered accidentally. We are talking about 1.5 meter bronze masks with eye-stalks a la Star Wars.
Also within a day's drive is Dazu and Emei Shan. So by staying in Chengdu, I was able to cover 5 WHS (add Jiuzhaigou and Huanglong) in one week. I will fill in the photos later from my Apple. |
| Date posted: March 2006 |
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