World Cultural Heritage: Mt. Qingcheng and Dujiangyan (2)

The Dujiangyan, which is a renowned ancient water conservancy project of China, is located on the Minjiang River west of the Chengdu Plain in Sichuan Province, and is to the east of the present day Dujiangyan City. In ancient times, it was called the Du’anyan because it was in Du’an County. The Dujiangyan is at the site where the water of the Min River flows from the mountain to the Chengdu Plain. Before the Dujiangyan was built, flood disasters frequently hit the Minjiang River. In 256 B.C., the Governor of the Qin Kingdom’s Shu Prefecture Li Bing and his son absorbed the water control experiences of their predecessors, organized the local people and constructed many water conservancy projects. After the Dujiangyan was completed, the Chengdu Plain became a wide land of fertile soil and won the title of “Land of Abundance.” This project is still working today, and has become a great and renowned project in the world.

The most important part of the Dujiangyan water conservancy project is the ditch-head project, which is the key facility of the Dujiangyan’s irrigation system. The ditch-head consists of three parts of the Fish Mouth Type Dividing Dike, Bottle-Neck Channel and Feishayan Spillway. The Fish Mouth Type Dividing Dike is a dike built in the center of the Minjiang River. Looking like a big fish lying in the water, the dike divides the Minjiang River into an inner river and an outer river. The inner river is for irrigation and the outer river is for draining floods. The Bottle-Neck Channel is the inlet of the inner river and really looks like a bottle neck. Originally, it was a part of the Tiger-Head Rock of Qianshan Mountain. Based on the current of the river and landform, Li Bing organized people and cut a wedge-shaped channel in the gentler slope of the rock.