Sanmenxia Travel Guide

With the construction of the first dam on Yellow River, the city of Sanmenxia was built in 1957 on the site of Gucheng in Shanzhou county. As legend goes, when Da Yu fighting the flood, he used his axe to divide the high mountain into three gorges, which were named People Gate, God Gate and Ghost Gate, therefore the place is called Sanmenxia Gorge, in Chinese it means three gates gorge. Today, as the center of economy, communication and culture on the borders of the three provinces, Sanmenxia is reputed as a bright pearl beset along Yellow River.

Sanmenxia measures 10496 square kilometers, with the landform mainly in mountainous area, hills and loess tableland. Most of the areas stand on the height above the sea level between 300 and 1500 meters, the highest mountain is Laoyacha, also called the little Qin mountain, is 2413.8 meters high above the sea level. The city of Sanmenxia lies on the terrace of the south bank of Yellow River, it faces Sanmenxia reservoir on three sides like a peninsula, therefore it is a  landscape city surrounded with mountains and waters.

As one of the birth places of Chinese civilization, Sanmenxia was dwelled by great clans and tribes 5000~6000 years ago. It was the governing center of  both Xia Dynasty and Shang Dynasty. In Western Zhoucentury, it belonged to Guo state, in Qin Dynasty, it was called Sanchuan county, in Western Han Dynasty, it was named Henan prefecture, when Wudi became the emperor, he called the plac more about Sanmenxia »