While you travel to Three Gorges, you may have opportuinity to visit Shibaozhai (Chinese Name: 石宝寨), literally means Stone Treasure Fortress, which is located at the south bank of the Yangtze River, 278 kilometers away from Chongqing City. It was first built in Qing Dynasty in 1750.
Shiabaozhai is a very small village with 600 years history, population was only 3000, most of the people lived in a nice street surrounding the pagoda, this street was built in the Ming dynasty with stones, the whole village was like a circle enclosing the pagoda just at the foot of the mountain, that was very beautiful.
And the original town had been flooded for the Yangze river’s water rising when the three gorges dam stored water. The new town was built from 1996, and covers 1 square km, population is about 10,000. The planning of the town was designed by the government.
Shibaozhai, the wooden architecture standing on the riverside, is built by catch upon a rectangular rock with sheer cliffs with a height of 56 meters and 12 stories. And every floor of the wooden structure contains interesting artifacts. Each of the 12 floors of Shibaozhai is dedicated to a famous general of the Three Kingdoms period (220A.D.-265 A.D.), a local scholar or a renowned Chinese poet.
Climbing the 12 stories is not as difficult as it may sound because you will need time to look at the paintings and sculptures on each level.
