Located on the north bank of the Yangtze river at the mouth of Qutang gorge, Fengjie county, Chongqing, White Emperor City is a famous tourist attraction of the three gorges. There are the features of mount Tai and the strange stone wonders of tuerling, formerly known as Ziyang city, which was built by Gongsun Shu, who divided shu territory in the late western Han dynasty. White Emperor City is the best place to view “kuimen world male”.
Besides the famous historical event of Liu Bei, visitors can also enjoy other excellent painting and calligraphic to marvel at the brilliant culture in China, hear many interesting things happened in the past dynasties, know about the folk custom of hanging coffins and so forth. More importantly, White Emperor City is the best place to appreciate the magnificent Kui Gate that is the mouth of Qutang Gorge of the Three Gorges on the Yangtze.
Since according to the historical records, a lot of celebrities during ancient times have paid visits to the White Emperor City and left a large number of praised poems, this place is also reputed as “City of Poems”. And now, you can spend some hours there to enjoy the academic atmosphere and the natural landscapes.
Main Attractions
Tuogu Hall
Tuogu Hall or Entrusting Orphan Hall is the most attractive place at White Emperor City. There you could see the vivid imitating scene of Liu Bei entrusting his son and whole country to his prime minister Zhuge Liang. The history has it that Liu Bei, the first king of the Shu Kingdom was defeated by the Wu Kingdome and retreated to White Emperor City. Since he became ill severely but his son named Liu Chan was too young to take over the state, he eagerly called Zhuge Liang to Baidi Cheng and entrusted Liu Chan and the whole country to Zhuge before his death. Later Zhuge didn’t rule the country as his own but educated and assisted Liu Chan sincerely, hoping his taking charge of the whole country from his father. That touching and famous story was told by generations of people and Zhuge Liang is always reputed with his loyalty and integrity.
Mingliang Palace
Mingliang Palace (明良殿) was originally built for memorizing Gongsun Shu who had brought good and peaceful life to local people during the chaos years. However, till the Ming dynasty, it turned to be the shrine for Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Zhuge Liang.And during your visit in this palace, you could find the facial expressions of the four eunuchs are much lifelike that those of the four great persons, which tells the super outstanding carving skills of ancient Chinese people.
Stele Forest
In the two stele forests at White Emperor City, you could stroll to appreciate over 70 outstanding works of various calligraphic scripts. And among them, the most famous two are from the Sui dynasty, having a long history of more than 1,300 years. Besides, there are two extremely excellent steles. One is the poem from Tang dynasty hand written by the Emperor Kangxi (康熙) of Qing dynasty; another is a poem carving but looks like a painting of bamboos from afar. All those great works show the brilliant culture and high standard skills of Chinese people in the past centuries.
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