This incredible underwater city, trapped in time, is 1341 years old. Shicheng, or Lion City, is located in the Zhejiang province in eastern China. It was submerged in 1959 during the construction of the Xin’an River Hydropower Station.
A Chinese city, left to ruin after a dam flooded the valley it was situated in, has become a paradise for divers, thanks to an idea from a local tourist official.
The ancient city of Shi Cheng, known as the Lion City, was founded over 1,300 years ago, but it vanished more than half a century ago to make way for a new hydroelectric power station, and a man-made lake.
The once bustling city is now between 85 and 131 feet underwater.
According to a story published in The Huffington Post, Qiu Feng, a local official in charge of tourism, decided to see what remained of the city under the deep waters.
From then on, the craze picked up and now divers are vying to get a look of the ancient treasure buried under water
1,078 large islands dot the lake and a few thousand smaller ones are scattered across it.
At the foot of Wu Shi Mountain (or “Five Lion” Mountain) lies an ancient city known as Shi Cheng (“Lion City”). It was built during the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25 – 200) and was first set up as a county in AD 208. This city acquired the name “Shi Cheng” from nearby Wu Shi Mountain, which is located just behind the city.
At present Shi Cheng remains undisturbed at a depth of 26-40m. Big Blue, a dive operator based in Shanghai, runs year-round weekend trips twice a month to Qiandao Lake and has begun exploration of this submerged city.
In 1994, in an event since named the Qiandao Lake Incident, three hijackers boarded a boat full of tourists and set it on fire, killing all 32 passengers on board. The passengers were mainly tourists from Taiwan.
It now claimed 32 ghosts haunt the lake!
