Baiheliang

'White Crane Ridge')[1] is a rock outcrop in Fuling District,[2] Chongqing, People's Republic of China, that parallels the flow of the Yangtze River.

In the past, Baiheliang served as an ancient device for measuring water levels of the Yangtze in China, the equivalent of a hydrometric station.

The eyes of fish carved on the stone indicate the lowest water levels of the Yangtze River, which made the site a precious hydrographic marker.

[3] Engraved in the rock are 163 inscriptions and pictures, which include 114 hydrological annotations,[4] which give detailed records of water levels in the river over 1,200 years, since the first year of the Tang dynasty Guangde era, 763; the assembled inscriptions and fish carvings, taken together, formed the longest such sequence in the world.

Hundreds of poetical homages to the place were inscribed in rock faces, which have disappeared beneath the rising waters as the dam has been completed.

Poster displayed at the Baiheliang Underwater Museum showing the configuration of the White Crane Ridge before the construction of the Three Gorges Dam
A Qing dynasty carved fish, previously placed on the White Crane Ridge, now displayed in the museum.