A Chinese city, left to ruin after a dam flooded the valley it lay in, has become a paradise for divers, after an ingenious idea from a local tourist official.
Often called the “Atlantis of the East” by travellers, the underwater city of Shicheng is a magnificent, mysterious time capsule of Imperial China.
Unlike the mythical Atlantis, Shicheng – which means Lion City in Mandarin – was purposely flooded in 1959
to make way for the Xin’an Dam and its adjoining hydroelectric station. Nearly 300,000 people were relocated for the project, some of whom had families that had lived in the city for centuries.
The ancient city of Shi Cheng, known as the Lion City because it was surrounded by the five Lion Mountains, was founded over 1,300 years ago, but it vanished more than half a century ago to make way for a new hydroelectric power station, and a man-made lake.
The once bustling city is now between 85 and 131 feet underwater in parts. But Qiu Feng, a local official in charge of tourism, decided to see what remained of the city under the deep wat
ers.
“We were lucky. As soon as we dived into the lake, we found the outside wall of the town and even picked up a brick to prove it,” he said. The town is in remarkable conditions, with wooden beams and stairs still remaining.
Surprisingly the city hasn’t eroded much and the buildings, walls, even wooden details remained. Currently a film crew is commissioned to record the ancient city. The archeologists are overwhelmed by how well preserved Shi Cheng is. However, there are n
o tourist facilities for diving, but hopefully in the future the site will be open for everyone to view.
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