Chongqing · A Side River With Coffins in the Cliffs
Lesser Three Gorges (巫山小三峡)
Three short gorges on a Yangtze tributary at Wushan, run in small boats. In the cliffs above the water there are coffins on ledges and a line of square sockets cut for a Han-dynasty plank road.
Quick Facts
The Short Version
| What it is | Three gorges on the Daning river, a northern tributary joining the Yangtze at Wushan, visited by boat |
|---|---|
| Where | Wushan county, eastern Chongqing municipality, at the eastern end of Wu Gorge |
| What to look for | Hanging coffins on ledges in the cliffs, and a line of square sockets cut into the rock face that once carried a timber walkway |
| How it is done | A larger boat up the main gorges, then small craft on the Madu river for the narrower section upstream |
| Booking | Sold as a cruise excursion or bought at Wushan. Independent visits are straightforward |
| Time needed | Half a day for the main gorges. A full day including the smaller upstream section |
| Terrain | All boat, with gangways at the transfers |
| Language | Chinese commentary. Cruise excursions bring their own interpreters |
Why Go
What Is Cut Into the Walls
1. The sockets
Along parts of the gorge there is a line of square holes cut into the vertical rock, evenly spaced, running horizontally for a long distance at a constant height. They held timber beams. Planks laid across the beams made a road along the cliff face, and that is how people and goods moved up this valley before there was any other way.
Work of this kind was done here from the Han period onward, and the sockets are the only part that survives, because the timber went long ago. Seen from a boat they read as a dotted line across a blank wall, and once someone points them out they are impossible to stop seeing.
2. The coffins
On ledges and in clefts high in the cliffs of the middle gorge there are wooden coffins, placed there by people who lived in this region long before the Han administration reached it. How they were got up there is not settled, and the burial practice belongs to a culture that is known mainly from what it left in inaccessible places.
They are visible from the boat with reasonable eyesight and obvious with binoculars. Bring some: this is the one thing on the trip that a phone camera will not reach.
The catch. The water here is reservoir water. The Three Gorges scheme raised the level at the mouth of this river too, so the boats float higher than they used to and the sockets are closer to the surface than the people who cut them intended. The gorge is still narrow and still worth the half day; the proportions are not the original ones.
Orientation
Two Rivers, Two Sizes of Boat
Boats leave from Wushan and run up the Daning through the three main gorges and back. The smaller section, on the Madu river further upstream, is a separate leg in narrow craft and is sold either as an add-on or as part of a full-day ticket.
Cruise passengers usually get the main gorges only, and the small-boat section is the part that gets cut. If that is the part you want, check what the excursion includes before boarding.
Practical
Things Worth Knowing
Bring binoculars
The coffins and the sockets are the reason to come and both are high on the rock. Without magnification you will see that something is there and not what.
Sit where you can see up
The walls are high and close. Seats under a low cabin roof waste most of the view.
Ask about the small boats
The Madu river section is the quieter and narrower half and it is the first thing dropped from a short excursion.
Weather closes it
Heavy rain raises the tributary quickly and sailings can stop at short notice. This is a wet region between June and August.
Timing
When to Go
| Season | The case for | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| September to November | Settled weather, clear air, and the best light down between the walls | The first week of October is the national holiday and the boats fill |
| March to May | Green on the walls and mist in the gorge in the mornings | Frequent rain, and the gorge can be closed in for days |
| June to August | Full water and every sailing running | Hot and humid, and heavy rain can cancel the upstream section |
| December to February | Very quiet, and the water sits high and still between the walls | Cold on an open boat and some operators reduce sailings |
Context
A Road Before There Were Roads
The valleys running north from the Yangtze here were the routes between Sichuan and the middle Yangtze, and they are too steep to walk. The answer, applied across this whole region over centuries, was to cut sockets into the cliff, drive beams into them and lay a deck: a road hung off a vertical wall, wide enough for a person with a load.
Systems like this carried salt, timber and troops. They were maintained, rebuilt and abandoned repeatedly, and what survives is almost always the holes rather than the structure. The line of sockets in this gorge is one of the more legible examples because it runs a long way at a constant height above a river you can float on.
The coffins belong to a different and older story. Cliff burial was practised across parts of southern China and southeast Asia by peoples who left little else, and the sites survive precisely because they are hard to reach. Almost everything that is known comes from the few that have been examined.
Nearby
Other Stops on the Same Trip
Spot · downstream
Baidicheng and Qutang Gorge (白帝城 · 瞿塘峡)
The temple compound above Kuimen, the gorge entrance printed on the ten yuan note.
Spot · downstream
Shennong Stream (神农溪)
Another tributary, at Badong, run in narrow wooden boats that were hauled upstream on ropes.
City · 8 hr upstream
Chongqing (重庆)
Where most Yangtze sailings begin.
Where to Base
Chongqing (重庆)
Wushan is a rebuilt county town on the reservoir and functions as a pier rather than a destination. Nearly everyone arrives on a ship running between Chongqing and Yichang and leaves the same day.
If you are doing the gorges independently rather than on a cruise, Wushan has beds and the full-day version of this trip, including the small-boat section, becomes practical.
Experiences
What You Can Actually Do Here
On the water · 3 hr
The three main gorges
Up the Daning and back, with the sockets and the coffin ledges pointed out on the way.
On the water · 2 hr
The small-boat section
Narrow craft on the Madu river above the main gorges, where the walls close in and the water is shallow.
Guided · full day
Wushan and Fengjie together
This river in the morning and the compound above Kuimen in the afternoon, with someone who can read the cliffs.
Worth half a day if you are on the river anyway, and the better of the two tributary excursions on this stretch. Bring binoculars, insist on the small-boat section, and pair it with Baidicheng downstream. Not worth a special overland journey on its own.
Plan a Yangtze Route That Includes the Lesser Three Gorges
Tell us your dates and what you are after, and our local team will build the route: the Daning gorges with the plank-road sockets and the coffin ledges, the compound above Kuimen, and the run down through the main gorges.