Sanmenxia Travel Guide

Sanmenxia City is located at the intersection of Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan Provinces, it is not only the birthplace of Yangshao Culture and Guo Culture, but also an important destination for the swan to survive in Winter. It is called the City of Swan. Sanmenxia is under the jurisdiction of Henan Province, but because it is very close to Yuncheng City of Shanxi Province, it is usually arranged together  in terms of travel schedule.

In the legend of "king Da Yu tamed the flood", Da Yu wielded a magic axe to split the mountain into tree gorges -- "Human Gate", "God Gate" and "Ghost Gate", which led to the surging flood of Yellow River to the east, hence the name "Sanmenxia" translate into English means "Three Gates Gorge". Sanmenxia area has a very long history of human settlements, 6000 years ago, there have been large clans. According to archaeological findings, from the 21st century to the 13th century BC, it is the notification center of the Xia and Shang Dynasties. The famous culture relics include: 

Yangshao Culture
Yangshao Culture is the late Neolithic culture, from 5000 to 7000 years ago, painted pottery with patterns on its surface is an important feature. Yangshao Village Site in Sanmenxia is one of the most important site of this culture.. It is also one of the most important 100 archaeological discoveries in the 20th century in China.

Yellow Emperor Culture
Chinese people are also called "descendants of the Yan and Yellow Emperors", so Yellow Emperor is an important progenitor to Chinese. In Sanmenxia, Yellow Emperor's Casting Ding Tableland Site("Ding" is a cooking vessel with two loop handles and four/three legs, it is an important sacrificial vessel, symbol of a country/dynasty in ancient China.) is the existing earliest inscriptions found in China which are dedicated to the story of Yellow Emperor. The site and the tribal ruins around is the historical materials for history studying of the Yellow Emperor.

Guo State Culture
Guo State was established in the early Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771 BC) with the family name Ji. Although the Guo State was weak and quickly annexed, it had a wide and profound influence on the history and culture of Western Zhou Dynasty. At present, large-scale excavation has been carried out from the city sites and nobles' cemeteries; with a large number of unearthed cultural relics, excellent craft and high value. They are all displayed in Guo State Museum now. 

In addition, because Sanmenxia is located at the junction for three provinces, there are important ancient pass and transportation roads -- Hangu Pass which is a famous pass of the ancient Great Wall in Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 AD); and Section of Guhan Ancient Road of Silk Road which is on world cultural heritage list.

Further more, except various historical and cultural sites, Sanmenxia is also "the Swan City", every November to next March, a large number of swans (more than 10000) will overwintering here. For the swans, Sanmenxia has established Swan Lake National City Wetland Park (also called habitat of Swan lake), which covers an area of 5900000 square meters, include 1800000 square meters lake and wetland. Birdwatchers and photographers can see large number of swans looking for food and playing here every winter.