Gongtan Ancient Town, the best historic and cultural town of Chongqing, the national AAAA scenic spot, and the most beautiful landscape town of China, is located at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain at the junction of Apeng River and Wujiang River, where is the golden port connecting Chongqing with Wujiang River. According to historical records, the flood occurred during the Wanli’s reign of the Ming Dynasty (in 1573) and the collapsed rocks blocked Wujiang River and made a beach. It was not accessible for the boats anymore. Gradually, an ancient town was built. Since most residents had a family name of Gong at that time, it was thus named Gongtan (The Beach of Gong).
Gongtan Ancient Town, suffering over 1,700 years of ups and downs, has unique architectural style, and long lasting folk culture, presenting a brilliant scroll of history to tourists. The stone street ranging 2km looks like green jade, stretching at the east bank of Wujiang River from up and down. It raised the magnificent Tujia tilted houses to the sky. Da Guanzhong, the Chinese painting master, said, “It is a street of the Tang Dynasty, a city of the Song Dynasty, and a home of my grandparents.” His famous traditional Chinese painting Old Street was created here.
The elegant residential houses built along the hillside and the river were supported with long fir wood or solid wood. The wooden structure tilted houses have rocks as the foundation and long pillars as the support over the stones, or winding the ancient trees in different heights. The wall between pillars can be installed with a door or a window. The lattice window facing the river has presented the inventive mind of people, which can be a place to admire the river or a place to take shade. The antique Daye Salt Company, Sanjiao Temple, Chuanzhu Temple, and Yangjia Firm and other ancient buildings are the treasures of ancient architectural history like the artistic sculptures.
Manwang Cave of ancient Ba culture site, the suspended tomb of Bo people in the East Han Dynasty, the towpath of Wujiang River, the Iron Fortress Ruins of Jintou monk’s uprising in the Southern Song Dynasty, the “square well” that the Taiping army fetched water for the local elderly, the cliff inscription of “Great Wave Surging to the Bank”, the rare interval fountain, and the wonderful folk customs have highlighted the charming aura of Gongtan Ancient Town with countless attractive folk stories.
Gongtan Ancient Town is a famous filming and photography base. Zhao Shiyan, Suppressing Bandits in Wuling Mountains, The Magical Man An Shimin, Blooming Tung Tree, Arrest Him, Calling from Mountains Afar and other movies and teleplays were filmed here. Emei Film Studio highly commented this ancient town as “Gongtan Ancient Town is the most charming place along Wujiang River”. Meanwhile, Gongtan Ancient Town is the famous natural rock climbing base. On May 1, 2002, Gongtan International Rock Climbing Challenge was put on here and broadcast by CCTV-5 successfully, performing “ballets on the cliff”.
Wujiang Hundred-li Gallery is a municipal scenic area of Chongqing, which is located at the west of Youyang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County. It covers the Youyang section of Wujiang River with 60km and the Youyang section of Apeng River, the branch of Wujiang River. It is a high taste scenic area integrating natural landscapes, historical ancient town, and folk customs, where is l57km away from the urban area of Youyang.
Taking up an area of 240km2, Wujiang Hundred-li Gallery has multiple scenic spots like Wujiang River Litchi Gorge, Gongtan Ancient Town, Apeng River, Qingquan Covered Bridge, Ma’an Town, Wanmu Stone Forest, Sanjia Footpath, Boren Suspended Tomb, Changxi Ditch, and so on. With the essence of thousand-li Wujiang River, it is known as the “hundred-li gallery of Wujiang River”.
Wujiang River Hundred-li Gallery has “mountains cut by axe, waters green as jade, tree branches winding like dragon, and birds flying and playing happily”. Featuring “strange mountains, odd stones, green water, rapids, ancient town, covered bridge, towpath, suspended tomb”, its Litchi Gorge, Baiji Gorge, and Tutuozi Gorge are the boutique of its landscape gallery. A poet in the Qing Dynasty said, “This should be the most wonderful landscape in the Shu State.”
The strange, magnificent, dangerous yet charming valleys and gullies, the amazing cliff, the arrogant Wujiang River and the galloping Apeng River scattering along the charming Wujiang River Hundred-li Gallery have attracted attention from countless scientific investigators, adventurers, photographers, movie and television crews.
