Chaotianmen Wharf Scenic Area

　　1. Chongqing’s water gateway, Chaotianmen, embraced by two rivers and fortified on three sides, boasts a majestic presence. On the stone walls, vines hang lush, while the yellow-flowered trees cling to the rocks and greenery flourishes. Ancient pavilions perch on the cliffs, with lofty towers overlooking the river. Two sets of stone steps descend side by side down to the water's edge. Legend says that no matter how low the river runs, the steps never end and lead to the mysterious Golden Bamboo Palace. In early summer and mid-autumn, when the Jialing River runs green and the Yangtze River flows yellow, the two waters collide at Chaotianmen, churning and swirling in what is known as "Horse-Biting Water," resembling wild horses galloping. In the river’s center, a rocky shoal emerges and submerges. Legend has it that after Yu the Great married the Lady of Tu Mountain in ancient Yuzhou, he spent 13 years controlling floods without returning home. "Chaotianmen Wharf – Confluence of Two Rivers": The Lady of Tu Mountain stood on the shoal, gazing toward her husband’s return, hence the name "Husband’s Return Rock." Chaotianmen lies at the strategic heart of the golden waterway and is one of Chongqing’s main transportation hubs. After 1949, the wharf was expanded multiple times, stretching along both rivers. Passenger terminals rose from the ground, with cable cars for passengers and cargo leading straight to the riverbanks. Aerial cableways soared overhead, shuttling left and right; cargo ships, passenger ferries, iron barges, and wooden boats crowded the river—some still, others in motion. To a large extent, Chongqing’s prosperity is concentrated at its water gateway, Chaotianmen.

　　2. Chaotianmen is a great spot for both domestic and international visitors to admire how the two rivers embrace the Chongqing Peninsula, with mountains and waters reflecting each other and countless vessels vying in the flow.

　　Chaotianmen is one of the nine riverside gates of Chongqing, located at the southeastern tip of the Chongqing Peninsula. At low water levels, the sand spit here sits at an elevation of 160 meters, making it the lowest point in the urban area. The Jialing River, one of the Yangtze River’s nine major tributaries, converges with the Yangtze here, surging thousands of miles downstream to the East China Sea. Chongqing is one of the important ports on the Yangtze River, known as the “Golden Waterway,” and serves as the economic center of the upper Yangtze region. Here, thousands of tourists are transported daily to cruise the spectacular Three Gorges of the Yangtze, while tens of thousands of tons of cargo are handled.

　　3. Chaotianmen was built in 314 BC by the Qin general Zhang Yi after the destruction of the Ba Kingdom, during the construction of the Ba Commandery city. It served as the place where successive dynasties received imperial edicts. In ancient times, the emperor was referred to as the "Son of Heaven," hence the name. Most ancient capitals were built in Luoyang, Chang’an (modern Xi’an), Kaifeng, or Yanjing (modern Beijing). The most direct route to Chongqing at the time would have been via the Sichuan-Shaanxi Road, but the Shu Path from Jiange and Guangyuan in Sichuan to Mian County in Shaanxi (modern-day section of the Chengdu–Chongqing Railway, 710 km long) was described as a "path only birds could traverse," nearly impassable for people. The great Tang poet Li Bai wrote in his poem "The Hard Road to Shu": "The road to Shu is harder than scaling the blue sky." Thus, envoys sent by emperors throughout history chose the longer route through Shaanxi or Hebei and Henan, then via Hubei, taking about a month to reach Chongqing’s "Chaotianmen Plaza" by boat upstream from Yichang.

　　4. Chongqing administers 9 districts, 9 counties, and 3 county-level cities. The Yangtze River flows through 5 districts, 2 counties, and 2 county-level cities, covering 248 km of waterway, while the Jialing River runs through 3 districts, 2 counties, and 1 county-level city, spanning 137 km of waterway. The urban area is surrounded by water on three sides and backed by land on one. Though the Yangtze River stretches 6,380 km in total, only 3,194 km are navigable, with 795 km navigable upstream—suitable only for small vessels. Downstream, it’s 2,399 km to Shanghai, 1,274 km to Wuhan, and 648 km to Yibin. The renowned Three Gorges of the Yangtze lie within the Chongqing–Yichang stretch, making Chongqing the ideal starting point for exploring these magnificent gorges.

　　5. On the southern bank across the Yangtze, the Nanyafang District served as the foreign consulate zone during the Japanese bombing of Chongqing. Historical records indicate that Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo secretly ordered Japanese planes not to bomb the section from Haitangxi to Danzishi in this area. Back then, the riverbanks along this stretch hosted numerous military and merchant ships from the U.S., UK, France, and Italy.

　　On Nan’an’s Xuantan Temple Lion Hill lies the Ciyun Temple, originally a Guanyin Temple, first built in the Tang Dynasty and renovated in the 22nd year of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty (1757 AD). It was renamed to its current title in 1927. The temple’s full history is well documented elsewhere; here we highlight just two points: First, to cultivate broad Buddhist connections, the abbot, Master Yunyan, broke with tradition and accommodated monks, nuns, and lay practitioners traveling to Mount Emei, Jiuhua, and Putuo, making it the country’s only temple where monks and nuns worship together—a tradition that continues today. Second, the Great Buddha Hall enshrines a 1.87-meter-tall, 1.34-meter-wide, 1,500-kg white jade statue of Sakyamuni, brought from Myanmar and arriving in Chongqing in 1931. It is one of China’s four great jade Buddha statues; the others reside in Shanghai’s Jade Buddha Temple, Beijing’s Beihai Round City, and Wuhan’s Guiyuan Temple.

　　6. On the mountaintop northeast of Ciyun Temple lies the Huangshan Official Residence, where Chiang Kai-shek took shelter from Japanese bombings during the war. Nearby Wangjiatuo, close to Nan’an’s Danzishi, had been a Japanese concession even before the war.

　　To Chaotianmen’s east, north of the Yangtze and five li away in Jiangbei District’s Gailanxi, stands a white pagoda visible from the river. Such pagodas—white or black—were considered auspicious symbols of peace by ancient people, dubbed “Demon-Suppressing Pagodas.” Built along key entry routes to cities, they signified that only good people could enter, as demons could not pass. They also served as landmarks, not only announcing the proximity of a city but also indicating it was just five li away. Near the pagoda lies Ren tou Shan (Human Head Mountain), where a giant rock atop a tall earthen mound resembles a human head, facing the Yangtze River as if trapped beneath the demon-suppressing pagoda.

　　7. To Chaotianmen’s left lies the Jialing River, originating from the Qinling Mountains of Shaanxi and southern Gansu, flowing through Shaanxi, Gansu, and Sichuan, spanning 1,119 km. The Jialing Passenger Cableway, which shuttles across the river, broke ground in December 1980 and was completed in a year, stretching 740 meters. Its slow speed is 2.5 m/s, while the fast speed reaches 8 m/s. Two cabins operate in opposite directions, each carrying 46 passengers. Beneath the cableway, the exposed sandbars at low water levels were once Chongqing’s early military training grounds and the site of the first Japanese bombing raid during the war.

　　8. The Chaotianmen Cable Car, one of the mountain city’s unique short-distance transit options, was built in 1984 mainly to spare ferry passengers the hassle of climbing steep steps. Chongqing’s earliest cable car was constructed in 1945 at Wanglongmen.

　　The Chaotianmen Flood Marker commemorates the unprecedented deluge of July 16, 1981, when waters reached an elevation of 193.38 meters above sea level—33.38 meters higher than normal. Thanks to the flood peak receding within 24 hours, minimal wind waves in inland waters, and the valiant rescue efforts of the government, military, and citizens, casualties were relatively low. Across Chongqing’s 8 districts, 4 counties, and 3 county-level cities, only 28 lives were lost—three of whom perished while trying to retrieve floating timber from the river’s center for profit.