A thousand-year-old ancient city sank into Qiandao Lake decades ago, and now people have perfectly recreated it on the shore

Because of the construction of the reservoir, a thousand-year-old ancient city was left under the water forever. That was the then Suian County seat - Lion City, which is now submerged at the bottom of Qiandao Lake. This city was first built in the Tang Dynasty and still retains the layout of that period. There are many historical sites in the city. In 2012, a CCTV program exploring the ancient underwater city of Qiandao Lake brought this thousand-year-old city back into people’s attention. Today, in Jiangjia Town on the shore of Qiandao Lake, people have perfectly reproduced the ancient city’s most lively North Street and East Street, presenting this underwater ancient city to the world and recreating the grand occasion of that time. However, man-made things still lack some connotation. Although it is a replica of the ancient city, it gives me the feeling of a commercialized ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River. What impressed me most were the seven archways on the street. Although they were replicas, they looked antique and each archway had its own story! Wenyuan Lion City can be seen as a carrier of a generation of culture, allowing the "incense" of the underwater Lion City to continue. Although it is somewhat commercialized, it at least allows people to remember that under the calm surface of Qiandao Lake, there is a thousand-year-old ancient city that has experienced vicissitudes of life.