An intact walled city 40m down, five gate towers, arched entrances, wide stone streets, and carved stone lions, dragons and…An intact walled city 40m down, five gate towers, arched entrances, wide stone streets, and carved stone lions, dragons and phoenixes on the walls, all preserved almost perfectly because fresh, still, cold water does not eat wood or stone the way the sea does. Some wooden beams and staircases survive. Shicheng was founded around 208 AD and was a regional centre for 1,300 years. In 1959 it was deliberately flooded, along with 27 towns and over a thousand villages, to build the Xin'an River hydroelectric dam, displacing nearly 300,000 people. It was forgotten until a 2001 expedition rediscovered it. Proposals to build a submerged viewing tunnel have circulated for years. Anchorage: Inland reservoir. Access is tightly controlled by Chinese authorities and largely closed to recreational divers, verify before listing. Hazards: Access is tightly controlled by Chinese authorities and largely closed to recreational divers, verify before listing. Meer