Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area

Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area

The Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area is a national AAAA-level tourist attraction.

Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area (LakeCity Tourism Area of the Three Gorges)

General Introduction:

Lofty gorges give rise to a placid lake, and that lake lies in Wanzhou.

Wanzhou boasts a long history and culture, a unique geographical location, beautiful natural scenery, and convenient transport by water, land, air, and rail. It serves as a distribution center and important destination for tourism throughout the Greater Three Gorges. The city of Wanzhou thrives thanks to the river—its birth, prosperity, and development all stem from the water—resulting in a unique urban landscape where “the city lies among mountains, the water flows through the city, and people live amidst mountains and waters.” The Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area has been recognized by CCTV as one of the “Top Ten New Scenic Spots of the New Three Gorges,” making it a prime example of a city-type tourism area where landscape and lake blend seamlessly. The area features key attractions such as the Xishan Clock Tower, Xishan Park, the 17th Port, Nanmenkou Square, Music Square, Hongshaqi, Nanbin Park, the San Sheng You Xing (Thrice Blessed) Square, and the Cherry Blossoms Sports Park. These sites integrate leisure tourism, music and art, dining and entertainment, and sports and fitness, embodying Wanzhou’s rich historical culture and modern humanistic charm.

Explore the Three Gorges starting from Wanzhou. Welcome to the Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area!

1. The 17th Port (the17thPort)

Wanzhou flourished because of the river, and Wanzhou Port is one of the ten largest ports along the Yangtze. Opened to foreign trade in 1902 and established with a customs house in 1917, the original No. 17 barge of the Wanxian Port Authority was located at the large staircase of Yangjiajiakou, commonly referred to as the “17th Port.” After Chongqing became a municipality directly under the central government, Wanzhou Port grew into the largest port in eastern Chongqing and the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Following the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam project, the rebuilt Wanzhou Port has become an unforgettable landmark for both local residents and visitors. Today, it serves as the tourist center of the Three Gorges Pinghu Tourism Area and the main reception hub for travelers across the Greater Three Gorges. It offers integrated services including tourism consultation, leisure and entertainment, sales of featured travel merchandise, and rides on sightseeing water buses, fully meeting the needs of transit tourists and nearby residents for leisure, sightseeing, entertainment, shopping, and dining.

2. Xishan Park (XishanPark)

   Established in 1925 and largely completed in 1928, Xishan Park was initially named Wanxian Commercial Port Park before being renamed Xishan Park, the name it retains today. The park features attractions such as the Xishan Clock Tower, an ancient tea garden, the Cemetery of Soviet Hero Kolya Kulishenko, the Monument to Martyrs of the War of Resistance, the Five Continents Pond, and the Jingyuan Garden. Home to numerous rare and ancient trees, it is one of the oldest parks in Chongqing and was once recognized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the China Parks Association as one of China’s Top 100 Famous Parks. The park cultivates over 600 varieties and more than 15,000 specimens of camellias, including Sichuan, Yunnan, and Dian camellias, earning it the title of “Internationally Outstanding Boutique Camellia Garden” from the International Camellia Society in 2016. The Cemetery of Soviet Hero Kolya Kulishenko has been designated as a “Fifth Batch National Key Martyrs’ Memorial Building Protection Unit” and is listed in the first batch of national-level memorial facilities and sites for the War of Resistance. The Monument to Martyrs of the War of Resistance commemorates the Sichuan soldiers who sacrificed their lives fighting in the war, and was declared a municipal cultural relic protection unit by the Chongqing Municipal Government in 2009.

3. Xishan Clock Tower (XishanBellTower)

A national cultural relic protection unit, the Xishan Clock Tower—also known as the Wanxian Clock Tower—was built in 1930. Designed by architect Dong Bingheng and constructed by the Wuhan Construction Factory, the tower blends Chinese and Western architectural styles. It now features a mixed brick, stone, and steel frame structure with a double-layered helmet roof, standing 50.24 meters tall with a square base of 12.86 meters per side, covering a ground area of 166.15 square meters and a floor space of 1,184.98 square meters. The ground floor houses a hall centered around a 7.7-meter-high, 1.34-meter-square stone stele originally inscribed with the “Maxims for Living in the World” by Xie Xianzhuang, a selected scholar from Wanxian. In the 1960s, the stele’s four sides were replaced with quotations from Mao Zedong. The Xishan Clock Tower features ingenious design, distinctive characteristics, and unique ornamentation. It stands as a quintessential modern building in Wanzhou and even Chongqing, ranking alongside the Shanghai Customs Clock Tower and the Wuhan Jianghan Customs Clock Tower as one of the Three Great Clock Towers along the Yangtze. It holds significant artistic value and architectural research importance, and is a landmark of Wanzhou.

4. Nanmenkou Square (NanmenkouSquare)

Nanmenkou Square is one of the birthplaces of Wanzhou’s city foundation, bearing witness to the thousand-year evolution of the ancient city from the Eastern Han Dynasty to the present, as well as the development of its politics, economy, military, and culture. At the founding of Wanxian City during the Ming Dynasty, walls were built connecting the East Gate, West Gate, and South Gate. The South Gate was once the busiest water dock in Wanzhou. With the impoundment of the Three Gorges Dam, the former South Gate was submerged. The rebuilt Nanmenkou Square offers unobstructed views, taking in both banks of the river, facing the 17th Port on the north bank and the Three Gorges Migration Memorial Museum on the south bank. A witness to Wanzhou’s millennia of urban transformation, the square embodies the memories of the city’s motherland for its people.

5. Music Square (MusicSquare)

The design elements of Music Square are inspired by ChuanDong Bamboo Zither, a traditional folk art form of eastern Chongqing. As a national intangible cultural heritage with over 200 years of history, ChuanDong Bamboo Zither is one of the traditional performing arts of Bashu, rich in unique historical, artistic, and humanistic value. The square features a modern-themed musical pergola incorporating the local bamboo zither instrument, along with interactive ground-based audio-visual equipment that can produce sounds of instruments like the bamboo zither. Covering 28,000 m², the square includes facilities such as a water screen movie, musical fountain, and dry fountain, with the musical fountain reaching a height of 60 meters. The square also has a water-accessible staircase allowing visitors to enjoy the riverside.

6. Hongshaqi (Hongshaqi)

Located in the riverside area beneath the Second Wanzhou Yangtze River Bridge, Hongshaqi takes its name from the red gravel (红砂, hóngshā) that forms the beach (碛, qì) where the river flow slows and sediments accumulate over time. On October 14, 1939, Soviet flight commander Gregory Kulishenko was tasked with attacking a Japanese military base. While flying over Wuhan, his plane was intercepted by Japanese fighters. On the return journey along the river, his heavily damaged aircraft crashed at what was then Juyutuo (now submerged). The Hongshaqi Riverside Ecological Park is a new-style urban park built around ecological and cultural concepts, combining features of traditional city parks and theme parks. Based on the terrain, the area above the 173m water level is designed as a public recreation zone, while the area below hosts ecological slope protection and natural beach recreation zones with aquatic plants, maintaining a lush green landscape even in dry seasons.

7. Nanbin Park (SouthLakesidePark)

Situated along the southern bank of the Yangtze River in Wanzhou’s Jiangnan New District, Nanbin Park faces Taibaiyan Mountain to the north and Zhanmao Mountain to the south. Stretching from Lianheba in the upper section to Mixigou in the lower, the park spans 11.68 kilometers in total, with the completed upper and middle sections covering 7.43 kilometers as a riverside linear park boasting a 72.28% greening rate. The park features a 6-meter-wide scenic walkway along the river and a 2.1-meter-wide colorful leisure path, providing citizens with access to the water, scenic views, and fitness opportunities. It is equipped with landscape features, artistic lighting, smart interactive guidance devices, and a cool mist system, creating a tranquil and garden-inspired visiting atmosphere. The park has planted 3,100 trees including banyan, osmanthus, ginkgo, Metasequoia glyptostroboides, golden willow, alpine banyan, and camphor; 2,718 flowering shrubs such as osmanthus balls, camellias, and pomegranate flowers; 40,000 clumps of spotted bamboo; 13,000 m² of ground cover like azaleas, photinia, camellia, and golden-edged snowberry; and 67,000 m² of grasses including February grass, Liriope, and Zephyranthes.

8. San Sheng You Xing (Thrice Blessed) Square (TriceblessedSquare)

Facing the Xishan Clock Tower across the river, San Sheng You Xing Square covers approximately 15,000 m². Its iconic feature is the “Three Lives Stone,” based on the story from Su Shi’s “The Biography of Monk Yuanye,” which tells of the Tang Dynasty monk Yuanye and the scholar Li Yuan traveling through the Three Gorges together. Yuanye was reincarnated in Wanzhou, and Li Yuan traveled a thousand miles to reunite with him in Hangzhou. The bonds of past and present lives, and affections spanning this life and the next, have become widely celebrated. The “Three Lives Fate” landscape wall is engraved with the story and poetry of the legend, making it a symbolic site where young couples “pledge their fate across three lifetimes.”

9. Cherry Blossoms Sports Park (CherryBlossomsSportsPark)

Located at the southern end of the Pailou Yangtze River Bridge in Wanzhou, Cherry Blossoms Sports Park covers a total area of 331.8 mu and is positioned as an eco-friendly sports park themed “natural ecology and sporty fashion.” The park includes sports facilities such as gateball courts, futsal fields, basketball courts, badminton courts, and tennis courts. Making full use of cliff resources, it has restored one of Wanzhou’s Eight Great Scenic Spots, the “Cen Cave Waterfall,” and combined it with space beneath the bridge to create the reservoir area’s first immersive light performance show. Supporting facilities include public toilets, a riverside leisure coffee shop, and a tea bar. The park has planted over 4,000 cherry blossom trees of more than 60 varieties, including Somei Yoshino, Yoko, Ukon, Fuyuzakura, Daikan, and October Glory, complemented by other trees like osmanthus, camphor, banyan, and jacaranda, along with flowering and colored foliage shrubs, ground cover, and flowers to create a richly layered plant landscape. Centered on riverside ecology, the park functions as an urban riverside leisure destination integrating sightseeing, flower appreciation and education, sports, fitness, and cultural experiences.

10. Old Wanzhou City Wall

Originally located at the confluence of Zhuxi River and the Yangtze at Nanmenkou, the old Wanzhou City Wall was a Qing Dynasty stone structure. It was relocated and reconstructed here due to the Three Gorges Project in 2014. Currently 129.76 meters long, 4.2–6.4 meters high, and 3–13.1 meters wide, it includes the Grand South Gate, Water Gate, and the wall itself. Before the Ming Dynasty, the wall was made of earth. In 1575 (the third year of the Ming Wanli reign), the riverside section was rebuilt with stone. Severe damage occurred during major floods in 1861 (the first year of the Tongzhi reign) and 1870 (the ninth year of the Tongzhi reign), leading to a four-year restoration effort. Most of the current wall dates from that reconstruction. As a witness to Wanzhou’s urban development, the old city wall holds significant historical and cultural value.

11. Pailou Yangtze River Bridge

The Pailou Yangtze River Bridge commenced construction on August 8, 2014, and opened to traffic on May 30, 2019. This bridge is a dual-tower cable-stayed bridge spanning the river in an urban setting, consisting of the main water-crossing section, two inverted Y-shaped pylons on the east and west banks, as well as their respective interchange ramps. The total length of the main bridge line is approximately 2.12 kilometers, and its designed main span measures 730 meters. The bridge features the deepest underwater construction in China; its southern main pylon stands in the middle of the river where the maximum water depth reaches 57 meters. The installation of the bridge’s uniquely shaped cable planes is the first of its kind in China. The landscape design of the pylons incorporates both Chinese elements and European styling. The nighttime lighting highlights the distinctive “dual-tower cable-stayed” feature, employing a variety of illumination techniques to create a multi-dimensional lighting effect, making the bridge resemble a giant harp standing atop a serene lake.