Ancient site · Other
Dujiangyan
Dujiangyan, on the Min River in Sichuan, is an irrigation and flood-control system built around 256 BCE by the state of Qin under its governor Li Bing. Instead of a dam, it divides the river and sends part of it through a channel about 20 metres wide cut through a mountain to the Chengdu Plain; the rock was cracked by heating it with fire and cooling it with water.
It made the plain one of China's richest farming regions and helped Qin unify China. More than 2,200 years later it still irrigates over 5,300 square km. It became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000.
- Dates
- built c. 256 BCE; still in use
- Still standing
- Yes
- UNESCO World Heritage
- Yes
- Location
- 31.00° N, 103.61° E
How we know
Chinese historical texts record the project and its builder, Li Bing, and the works themselves survive and still operate.
Nearby sites
- Jinsha c. 1200–800 BCE (Shi'erqiao phase)
- Sanxingdui c. 1700–1150 BCE (sacrificial pits 12th–11th centuries BCE)
- Banpo c. 4700–3600 BCE
- Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and the Terracotta Army 246–209 BCE
- Pengtoushan c. 7500–6100 BCE
- Taosi c. 2300–1900 BCE