Wushan

About Wushan

Wushan is the gateway to the most celebrated stretch of the Yangtze. The county town in the far east of Chongqing sits where the Daning River joins the great river, at the head of the Wu Gorge, whose twelve misty peaks have inspired Chinese poets for more than a thousand years.

The old town was largely submerged by the Three Gorges Dam reservoir, and a new town climbs the steep hillside above the water today, linked to the far bank by a long arch bridge. What stayed the same is the landscape: sheer limestone walls, side valleys of jade-green water and terraced slopes that turn red and gold in late autumn. Fossils found at the Longgupo site nearby make this one of the oldest known places of human activity in China.

Most visitors arrive on a Yangtze cruise and take a boat up the Little Three Gorges on the Daning River, then switch to smaller boats for the even narrower Mini Three Gorges. Others stay a night or two to hike up toward Goddess Peak, visit the relocated old town of Dachang, and eat the local speciality of spicy grilled fish.