Forget parks that have been swallowed up by lakes – try whole cities. In 1959, the Chinese government flooded a valley in Zhejiang, China, to build a hydroelectric power station. Two ancient cities fell beneath the waters:
Before the valley was flooded, there stood at the foot of the Wu Shi mountain (Five Lion Mountain) two magnificent ancient cities – Shi Cheng and He Cheng. Shi Cheng was built more than 1300 years ago in 621 AD during the Tang dynasty (AD 618-907) and was once the center of politics, economics and culture. He Cheng is even older: established in 208 AD during the Han dynasty (AD 25 – 200) as a business hub along the Xin’anjiang River.The cities of He Cheng and Shi Cheng remained forgotten for 40 years until 2001, when Qiu Feng, a local official in charge of tourism, discussed ways to provide entertainment on Qiandao Lake with a Beijing-based diving club. He thought about utilizing the towns and asked the divers if they could dive into the water and have a look at it.
You can read the whole article – and check out some more impressive pictures – here.
