The Three Gorges were so named from the late Han dynastic period (23 - 220 AD). This nomenclature groups into a set of three the numerous shoals and gorges of the Yangzi river between Wanxian and Yichang. The Three Gorges are the Qutang Gorge (8km long), the Wuxia Gorge (45km long) and the Xilong (66km long) Gorge. The journey through The Three Gorges begins, usually at dawn, from Wanxian. The first town we pass will be Baidicheng , a town closely associated with events of the "The Three Kingdoms" . It was here that Liu Bei died of despair after failing to avenge his sworn brother Guan Yu. These two warriors, as well as their associates, Zhuge Liang and Zhang Fei, are commemorated in the Baidi Temple. Qutang Gorge The first of the gorges is an impressive sight, its angry waters described by the Song poet Su Dongpo as "like a thousand seas poured into one cup". Lu You, a scholar of the Southern Song dynasty (1120 - 1279), goes into greater detail as he describes his descent: "Entering the Qutang Gorge, I saw two rocky walls rising into the clouds and facing each other across the river. They were as smooth as if they had been cut with an axe. I raised my head and looked up. The sky was like a narrow waterfall. But there was no water falling down. The river in the gorge was as smooth as shining oil." From "Record on Going into Sichuan" by Lu You (1170) These vertical cliffs are pocked by Meng Liang's Staircase , square holes chiselled into the rock as far as the platform halfway up, where legend has it that the Song general Yang Jiye was killed by traitors. When his bodyguard climbed the cliff to recover the headless corpse, he was deceived by a monk whom he later up-ended and hung by the feet from the cliff face. Wuxia Gorge The character "Wu" refers to a shaman. This gorge was so called after an imperial physician called Wu Xian who lived during the time of King Yao. Wushan begins the second set of gorges, Wuxia; 45km of fantastic precipices. It is fabled that the goddess Yao Ji and her eleven sisters quelled some unruly river dragons and then turned themselves into mountains, thoughtfully positioned to help guide ships downriver. Nearby, a rock inscription attributed to the Three Kingdoms strategist Zhuge Liang proclaims: "Wuxia's peaks rise higher and higher" - ambiguous words that so frightened an enemy general that on reading them he turned tail and fled with his army. A short detour up Danning Stream takes you through the picturesqe Lesser Three Gorges (see the photo above). Towards the end, high up on cliff are hanging coffins . A burial custom of the Ba people, dating back over 2,000 years, they resemble other cliffside coffins found in Gongxian near Yibin. These hanging coffins are said to date back to the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644). No one is sure how or why this custom came about, however the Ba people - no longer surviving - were known for other perverse behavior, such as that of protesting heaven. One such protest, for example, took the form of wearing too many clothes in summer and too few in winter. Xiling Gorge Farther downstream, Zigui town was the birthplace of the poet Qu Yuan, whose suicide a couple of millennia ago is commemorated throughout China by dragon-boat races. This is where Xiling, the longest and traditionally most treacherous of the Three Gorges, begins. "The Xintan Shoal" by Su Shi (Song dynasty) "Our flat boat skirts the winding mountains; Astonished we are by the approaching scenery. The white waves surge across the river, Rising and falling like snow descending from the sky. Each wave being higher than the preceding one, All fall onto the depressed riverbed. Small fish disperse and then assemble, Appearing and disappearing as if in boiling water. The cormorants dare not dive into the river, They one fly across it, flapping their light wings. The egrets wade in the shallows, slim and agile, But sometimes they cannot stand steady. As for people aboard the small boat, No one dares display poor oarsmanship. To the temple shore they go to pray for safety." The scenery hasn't changed since that time, but the rocks, rapids and trackers that used to plague this gorge have gone, and your boat will pass with ease, sailing on to a number of smaller gorges, some with splendid names - Sword and Book, Ox Liver and Horse Lung - suggested by their rock formations. Another of these, Huang Mao Xia, the Yellow Cat Gorge, marks the future site of the monstrous Three Gorges Dam, due for completion around 2009. Past here are the sheer cliffs and shifting currents of Nanjin Pass, and after that the broad gentle plain above Gezhouba, an enormous complex of dams, power plants, locks and floodgates. The boat squeezes through the lock, which can take some time, before docking in Yichang. The Geological Formation Of The Three Gorges During the Triassic period, some 200 million years ago the Mediterranean Sea flowed as far east as the Yangzi River valley. When the Indochina orogenic (mountain forming) movement occurred, the western land mass fell and the Mediterranean Sea receded. Simultaneously, as the Qingling Mountains rose in central China, a system of lakes and rivers developed in the Yangzi River valley, flowing westwards to the Mediterranean. 130 million years later, the Yangshan movement took place, by which the limestone-based Sichuan Basin and Three Gorges area rose to their current location. As a result of this occurrence, it is possible in the area to find at 1000 meters altitude, pebbles and rocks belonging to lake bottoms of this past geological period. The Himalayan orogenic movement, which followed 30 million years later (and which continue to raise the Three Gorges by 2-4 millimeters per year), gave rise to dramatic changes west of the Three Gorges: vertiginous mountains, high plateaux and deep valleys formed. At this time, two rivers flowed from a large lake in the Three Gorges area; one to the west and another to the east. Because the altitude drop in the eastern river was much greater than the one in the west, and hence its rate of erosion faster, when the two rivers eventually met to cut a precarious path through the Three Gorges, the resultant river flowed eastwards. Effect Of The Three Gorges Dam Since The Three Gorges are much taller than the total planned water level increase of 80 meters, they will never be submerged by the reservoir. They will however, appear to be 80 meters lower and therefore not as dramatic as they are now. Indeed, visitors should bear in mind that after the Gezhouba Dam project, completed in 1988, the water level in The Three Gorges rose by 10 meters.