Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Flowing through the Fuling district of Chongqing Municipality, the Yangtze River looks as graceful as a teal green scarf. Located along the river's bank, the Underwater Museum of Baiheliang is like this flowing scarf's "shawl pin," a vintage one, since it hosts a hydrological legacy with 1,200 years of history. 

The "Baiheliang Inscriptions" is the legacy's name. Also known as "White Crane Ridge," it is a 1,600-meter-long underwater stone ridge with more than 160 inscriptions. They are water observation records as well as calligraphic works created by ancient Chinese people since the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The Baiheliang site has many other titles such as "Sunken Forest of Steles," among which "World Heritage Site Candidate" intrigued me the most. The title originated in 2023, when China and Egypt started working together to apply for Baiheliang and the Rawda Island Nilometer to attain a joint World Heritage title.

There are many ancient hydrological sites around the world, so how is the Baiheliang site connected to the Rawda Island Nilometer? What is so unique about Baiheliang that it has the potential to be a World Heritage Site? 

These questions were gradually answered after an on-site visit. 

Though geographically distant, China-Egypt hydrological sites share profound similarities. They both originated around 700 AD and revealed the early water measuring wisdom of two agricultural civilizations. 

However, compared with the Nilometer, a standing octagonal column meter that is very pragmatic, the Baiheliang Inscriptions appear to be mysteriously poetic. 

These inscriptions show that ancient Chinese people measured water levels using written poetry rather than numbers. As such they are of aesthetic importance as calligraphy works that include Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) master Huang Tingjian's seven-character poem. 

I was struck by the romantic spirit of ancient Chinese people while reading these ancient writings on the ridge, noting how they expressed sentiment while observing nature. Examining these works, I had an epiphany that the Baiheliang site is unique because it shows how ancient Chinese carried out artistic pursuits in everyday life, which is not obviously seen at other ancient water observation sites. 

The romantic Baiheliang site has World Heritage potential due to its humanistic value. 

Other than its poetic nature, I gradually discovered the cutting-edge side of the Baiheliang site while visiting the "pressure-free cabin." 

The cabin is a protective cover that fully encloses the Baiheliang ridge, which is 40 meters underwater. It is filled with automatically circulating, cleaned Yangtze River water, while the outside of the cabin features a corridor filled with air that allows visitors to walk by without getting wet. 

This design was completed in 2009 to preserve the site's original location, appearance and environment. 

I sensed the innovative spirit of Chinese heritage workers, especially after I was told that the project's lead Ge Xiurun had made five attempts to finally win people over to his vanguard idea. 

Taking a tour at the museum made visitors see the full value of the Baiheliang site. 

In 1963, an archaeological team's unexpected discovery at Baiheliang made many people see how the ancient site was ahead of its time. 

By investigating two inscribed stone fish, the team found that the elevation of the eyes of two stone fish were aligned with the zero-water level of the local hydrological station in Fuling. 

Noting the Baiheliang Inscriptions were used as a reference when constructing the Gezhouba Hydropower Station and the Three Gorges Project, Jiang Rui, the museum's director, said that the inscriptions provide a "crucial reference for today's water conservancy construction, hydropower development, and shipping growth along the Yangtze River." 

In the process of the joint World Heritage application, demonstrating the sustainability of such a heritage is an inevitable issue. 

Today, the inscriptions are used to analyze the historical water levels of the upper Yangtze River and track the cycles of droughts and floods. 

"In the future, both Baiheliang and the Nilometer can still provide thousands of years of detailed data, offering valuable insight for future environmental protection efforts and global climate change research," Jiang said. 

Standing in the museum's hall, I saw the small facility was crowded with visitors from different walks of life. Among them, there were also international visitors from France, Belarus, Russia, Peru and Kenya. 

A documentary producer from Russia told me that the Baiheliang Inscriptions had inspired her to feature the Chinese heritage site in her next project. 

Following the growing China Travel trend and the public's growing interest in museums, creative travel routes have been launched to introduce the district's major spots such as the Baiheliang and the Wuling Mountains. 

Whether or not the World Heritage application is successful, Baiheliang has already become a key driver for local cultural tourism. 

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn