Construction of an underwater museum housing the world's oldest hydrologic survey device in the Yangtze River is smoothly underway in southwest China's Chongqing.

The major body of the underwater museum to protect Baiheliang Ridge of Rocks has been completed and will open to the public on June 30 in 2006, when other subsidiary projects are due, according to Wang Chuanping, deputy-director of Chongqing Municipal Cultural Department.

The project started in 2002 with three parts: underwater base construction, a water-filled underwater museum and a cement cover to protect the museum, and a 2,000-square-meter exhibition hall at a nearby bank.

The ellipse underwater museum, about 70 meters long and 23 meters wide, is built to protect the middle ridge with intensive inscriptions of water level scores and famous calligraphers' work. It was built transparent and could allow clean water in and out of the body.

The ellipse cover is then protected with another cement one, which provides a circuit for tourists to visit. Tourists would be descended into the interlayer with an elevator from above the water.

Chongqing Mayor Wang Hongju declared Baiheliang Ridge of Rocks, the world's oldest water survey device, will apply for listing as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Baiheliang Ridge of Rocks, about 1.6 kilometers long and 15 meters wide, detailed scales of the lowest water levels in the Yangtze River each year for 1,200 years and contains the work of many famous calligraphers.

Located at the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Baiheliang only emerged from the water during dry seasons. It was submerged in the Three Gorges Project construction in 2003. 

2005/04/20
Source: Xinhuanet