About Yichang

Yichang, Located in the southwest of Hubei province and the junction of the middle-upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Yichang is well known for its unique position, which is called the “ the entrance to Three Gorges and Sichuan province”. Yichang has a long history. Dating back to 1.2 million years, “Changyang people” began to move about in Qingjiang River Basin. Dozens of Neolithic relics in China's mainland prove that ancestors of the Chinese nation lived and multiplied on this land 7000 to 8000 years before. Yiling, a toponym of Yichang in ancient times, originated from the fact that “the water of river is not turbulent again and the hills, not mountains, are seen everywhere from here”. In the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911/12), Yiling was changed to “Yichang”, which means “prosperity. With a long well-established history of Ba and Chu culture, Yichang is the birthplace of Qu Yuan, a world historical and cultural figure, and Wang Zhaojun, an ambassador of national unity between Han people and a minority in Han Dynasty. Honored as “Hydropower Capital of the World, Yichang is home to the Three Gorges Dam Project (TGP) and Gezhouba Water Conservancy Project.

The geographical environment of the Three Gorges Area in Yichang is unique. In history, it is in this place that the Cultures of Jin-Chu, Ba-Shu and Qin-Long were mixed together. This complicated, queer and intermediary regional environment developed and molded a colorful, mysterious and wonderful regional culture and tourism culture. Three Gorges tourism culture consists of landscape tourism culture specialized by gorges, karts landforms, rivers, lakes, waterfalls and fountains; architectural tourism culture carried by tradition folk houses, Buddhist temples and Taoist temples, reservoirs, dams and modern bridges; diet tourism culture specialized by Sichuan style, folk taste and Chongqing hot-pot; celebrity tourism culture influenced by ancient literary giants, beauties, military officers, relegated officers and statesmen, military scientists and scholars; and lastly the special tourism culture characterized by the mysterious suspended cliff-buried-coffins, ancient plank road built along a cliff, ancient military camps, marvelous stones, root carvings, bonsai and so on. All of these tourism cultures are impelled by the rising of hydroelectric culture and form a rare, colorful and wonderful cultural system of Three Gorges tourism closely related to mysterious landscapes