and along its tributaries include Tianshui, Baoji, Longnan, Longnan, Mianyang, Suining, Bazhong, Wanyuan, Dazhou, and Guang'an. Fauna A total of 151 species of fish inhabit the river, of which 51 species are endemic to the Yangtze River basin. History The Han and Jialing basins were the heartland of the ancient state of Ba, whose major cities were located at the sites of their tributaries' confluences. The Jialing assumed greater importance when Chu expanded up the Han during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. The Jialing figures in one of the legends surrounding the Tang-era artist Wu Daozi. During the Kaiyuan Era of the Emperor Xuanzong, Wu was commissioned to depict the course of the Jialing and sent to Sichuan to travel its length for the work. Supposedly, he returned to the imperial palace and completed it in a single day from memory. It is sometimes added that his technique was foiled by Li Sixun, who accompanied him and followed the traditional practice of working slowly from numerous prepared sketches. To the extent that it is grounded in a real event, however, it probably only reflects Wu's speed of execution and not a lack of reliance on sketches. Around 1880, four out of Chongqing's 24 shipping guilds were concerned with shipping along the Jialing. Chongqing, Lingshi, Lezhi, and Hechuan all developed shipyards. In the 1920s, five of Chongqing's eight ferry guilds plied routes across the Jialing. Following the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the river was repeatedly dredged and straightened until it was navigable throughout the year by the early 1970s. Notes References Rivers of Shaanxi Rivers of Chongqing Rivers of Gansu Tributaries of the Yangtze River