Yichang · Xiling Gorge

Xiling Gorge runs 66 kilometres from Xiangxikou near Zigui east to Nanjinguan at Yichang, the longest of the three and historically the most feared for its rapids and rocks. There are gorges within the gorge — Bingshu Baojian, Niugan Mafei, Konglin and Dengying in sequence — and rapids within the rapids, with Qingtan, Xietan and Konglingtan each a gate of death for boatmen. Decades of channel works after 1949, and then the backwater from the Gezhouba dam raising the level for a hundred li, sank those rocks out of harm's way and ended the long rule that no vessel ran the Three Gorges at night.