The first of the gorges is an impressive sight, its angry waters described by the Song poet Su Dongpo as "like a thousand seas poured into one cup". Lu You, a scholar of the Southern Song dynasty (1120 - 1279), goes into greater detail as he describes his descent:
"Entering the Qutang Gorge, I saw two rocky walls rising into the clouds and facing each other across the river. They were as smooth as if they had been cut with an axe. I raised my head and looked up. The sky was like a narrow waterfall. But there was no water falling down. The river in the gorge was as smooth as shining oil."
From "Record on Going into Sichuan" by Lu You (1170)
These vertical cliffs are pocked by Meng Liang's Staircase , square holes chiselled into the rock as far as the platform halfway up, where legend has it that the Song general Yang Jiye was killed by traitors. When his bodyguard climbed the cliff to recover the headless corpse, he was deceived by a monk whom he later up-ended and hung by the feet from the cliff face.
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