Yuliang Dam 渔梁坝

About Yuliang Dam

Yuliang Dam (渔梁坝) is an overflow stone weir across the Lian River (练江), which feeds the Xin'an River (新安江), at Yuliang village (渔梁村) about 1 km south of the county town of She County (歙县), Anhui.

Historical records credit Wang Hua (汪华), Duke of Yue (越国公) in the Sui-Tang period, with moving the seat of Xin'an commandery to She and damming the river to serve both the army and ordinary people. It was rebuilt in 1605, the 33rd year of the Ming Wanli reign. The State Council placed Yuliang Dam on its fifth batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level in 2001, and the architectural historian Zheng Xiaoxie (郑孝燮) judged its design and function comparable with Dujiangyan (都江堰) on the Min River.

The weir measures 138 m in length, 27 m across the base and 4 m across the top. Each of its stones weighs more than a tonne. The builders set a stone post after every ten blocks and joined blocks sideways and course to course with stone pins and "stone locks" (石锁), so the whole dam behaves as one mass. A drainage gate opens in the middle.

By raising the water upstream and smoothing the passage downstream, the dam turned Yuliang into the main port from which Huizhou merchants set off for Zhejiang and Jiangsu in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Rafts carried tea, timber, cotton cloth, silk, paper and ink down the Lian into the Xin'an. Before modern roads arrived, more than 300 boats at a time could be moored below the dam, and salt, tea, timber and pawnbroking, known as the four main Huizhou merchant trades, were prominent in the commercial street that grew up there. Older residents still recall a small "coffin house" (藏柩屋) not far from the dam, where the bodies of merchants who died far from home waited for their families.

Yuliang Street (渔梁街) meets the north end of the dam. Its pebble paving resembles fish scales, and the street rises about 7 m from its ends to a middle high point, which locals liken to the body of a fish.

What to look for

• The dam crest, a 138 m walk across the Lian River on stones of over a tonne each
• The central drainage gate in the weir
• Ziyang Bridge (紫阳桥), a Ming-dynasty bridge a short way downstream, 14 m high with arches raised for sailing boats
• Yuliang Street (渔梁街), paved with scale-like pebbles and lined with Huizhou-style houses
• Side lanes on the west of the street that lead down to the old riverside wharves
• Yaojia Lane (姚家巷), the "fish belly" high point of the street, and Baiyun Chan Monastery (白云禅院) at its "fish tail"

Location & getting there

Getting to Yuliang Dam

• Search for 渔梁坝 with 黄山市 and 歙县.