China opens underwater museum
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China’s list of engineering achievements will see another impressive addition today, when the country’s first underwater museum opens near Chongqing. The Baiheliang Museum, built at a cost of CNY189 million (US$27.6 million), is located 40 metres below surface of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, near another of the country’s remarkable structures, the Three Gorges Damn.
According to a Xinhua report, the complex consists of the museum, a connecting passageway, an underwater pier and an on-land exhibition room. Construction of the main part of the museum was completed in 2006, before the dam raised the water level last year.
Baiheliang, literally meaning ‘White Crane Ridge’ is a smooth stone ridge 1,600 metres long and 25 metres wide which was created about 1,200 years ago, to measure changes in water levels. It is engraved with inscriptions about China’s longest river dating from 763AD to the early 20th Century.
Main attractions are 20 fish sculptures that serve as water-level markers and about 30,000 characters of Chinese poems from different dynasties. It is claimed to be the world’s oldest hydrographical survey device and is one of the four state-level national treasures in the Three Gorges area.
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