Daning River Ancient Plank Road Relic

Daning River Ancient Plank Road Relic - Brief Introduction

On the west bank cliff of Longmen Gorge, over water surface for 15 meters, there are numberless neat and square stone holes, which is the relic of Daning River plank road. Most stone holes of plank road is in square shape, the aperture is about 20cm wide and 30cm deep, and the distance between two holes is about 130cm -200cm. The holes on the cliff is in upside down "A" shape. The upper two holes were used to stick wooden poles and put the wooden planks on them, while the down hole was used to stick wooden pole to put up the wooden planks, form a triangle support to built the "plank road" on which people and animals can walk. The ancient plank road is mainly in Daning River area; it started from the mouth of Longmen Gorge, passed by Wuxi County and stretched to the Zhenping County of Shanxi Province, Xi County of Hubei Province, Chengkou of Chongqing. Daning River ancient plank road stretched 4000 kilometers, which was longer than the famous Jiange plank road. It was rarely seen in Chinese ancient plank road relics.

Daning River Ancient Plank Road Relic – Role in History

It was recorded in Daning County Annual that "these stone holes was chiseled in Qing and Han Dynasties, which was used to put bamboo in it to lead salt water into Dachang". There is a folk legend said that this is the passage of Zhuge Liang when he had battle with Wei Kingdom – the army of Zhuge Liang stationed in Chengkou. When fight with Wei Kingdom, the army came out Wu Gorge from the plank road. When the army came out, they put wooden poles and planks on the stone holes, while they retreated back, they removed the poles and planks, so the enemy can't chase.

Daning River Ancient Plank Road Relic – Current Situation

Mt. Wu Daning River ancient plank road was opened again in 2011 after it was repaired for one year. The repaired part is located between Luojia Fortress and Madu River in Dicui Gorge, stretching 3 kilometers. The altitude is under 175 meters water level. There set up pavilions, corridor and glass road and so on along the way base on the mountain terrain and landscape. The repaired plank road includes five sight spots; they are Ancient Fortress Welcome Visitors, Dicui Was Surrounded by Cloud, Listen to the Wave Sound on the Cliff, Walk Along River Bank, Pursue Dream on Gallery Bridge. All of these buildings were built by taking modern construction methods, using local material and local techniques to reappear traditional buildings; make they coordinate with surroundings.