The Flooded City of Shicheng: Before and After Picture Comparison

Shicheng is an ancient city, established about 1300 years ago, now lies at the 26-40 m depth underwater.

Recently Chinese National Geographic magazine published a series of great pictures about Shicheng City (literally, Lion City), Zhejiang. On the Chinese net, we found some interesting view of the city before it was flooded.

The valley was flooded in 1959 to create the lake for the Xin’an River Dam project. At the foot of Wu Shi Mountain (or “Five Lion” Mountain) lies an ancient city known as Shi Cheng (“Lion City”). It was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 – 200) and was first set up as a county in AD 208. This city acquired the name “Shi Cheng” from nearby Wu Shi Mountain, which is located just behind the city. At present Shi Cheng remains undisturbed at a depth of 26-40m. Big Blue, a dive operator based in Shanghai, runs year-round weekend trips twice a month to Qiandao Lake and has begun exploration of this submerged city. [Wikipedia]

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Qiandao Lake is a man-made lake located in Chun’an County, formed after the completion of the Xin’an River hydroelectric station in 1959.

The city was once the center of politics, economics and culture of Sui’an County in that area.

According to the restored map of Shicheng, there were five city gates in all directions. You can find one city gate tower on each city gate and all together there are five towers. Besides, six streets in Shicheng City were used to connect every corner of the city as a whole. The typical roads in Shicheng City were stone roads, tidily paved by flagstone and pebbles. [China.org.cn]

The village of Wenchang buried deep under the water of Qiandao lake





Source

Wikipedia , China.orgn.cn via io9

http://www.qdhnews.com.cn/col1490/col5414/article.htm1?id=884486

http://news.hangzhou.com.cn/content/2012-04/30/content_4176485.htm