Shanghai Daily
September 25, 2000

Construction of an underwater museum at Baiheliang, also called White Crane Ridge, on the Yangtze River will be finished early next year, Xinhua news agency reported today. The museum houses the world’s oldest hydrologic inscriptions, detailing the Yangtze River’s historic water levels in the reservoir of the Three Gorges Project. Visitors can view the inscriptions through a glass cover in an underwater corridor, which is 40 meters below the water. The museum is the brainchild of scientist Ge Xiurun, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The inscriptions, dating back 1,200 years, appear on a 1,600-meter by 16-meter horizontal stone girder known as "Baiheliang," which naturally records the history of the river’s levels. The country spent 140 million yuan (US$17.46 million) on the museum, including an exhibition hall on the grounds, traffic system, a corridor and protective measures. One of the original protection plans expected that when the massive dam was being built on the river’s middle reaches, the inscribed girder would be buried because of silted sand. However, Ge suggested it would be possible to build an underwater museum at the middle of the girder where the inscriptions are concentrated. Underwater lighting will be installed so visitors can view the inscriptions via the glass protection windows. Ge explained that the top of the underwater museum would be submerged when the water level is high and it would stand above the water surface when the level is low.