Early summer was still fresh and warm and grass had not stopped growing. It was still a thriving scene. Wei Jianguo (Director-General of Changzhi Crossing Club) led team to collect water sample at the Eight Spring Gorge Scenic Area of the Grand Canyon of Taihang Mountain on May 10th and brought the sample to the scene of opening ceremony of “2019 China•Sanmenxia Crossing Mother River Campaign” to attend the campaign ceremony of “Lakes and Rivers Converging into Mother River”.
For the Eight Spring Gorge, its maximum altitude is 1,700m, minimum altitude is 600m, total length is 13km and basin area is 60.33 km2, with more than 300 springheads and more than 30 waterfalls. There are eight large springs coming out of the same location in the middle and rear part of the gorge and there are eight spring openings at another two springheads respectively in the middle part of the gorge. As the total numbers of springs at three locations are all three, thus the name of the gorge is changed to Eight Spring Gorge. The natural mountains and rivers of Eight Spring Gorge form a delightful contrast. There are over one hundred landscapes, mainly including: Cock Crowing at Dawn, Eight Spring Ladder, Middle Heaven Gate, North Heaven Gate, Jade Emperor Pavilion, South Heaven Gate, Zodiac Ridge, Yaochi Pool, Elevator Square, Time & Space Tunnel, Highland Lake in Gorge, Monkey Valley, Little Eight Streams, Middle Eight Streams and Large Eight Streams. These landscapes have three major features: tour on ground, tour amidst clouds and tour in sky. As “World-Class Highest-Grade Tourism Resources” and “The Most Magnificent Gorge of Taihang”, these landscapes are excellent places for natural sightseeing, ecological tourism, geological examination as well as leisure and vacation.
Wang Xuesong (Manager of Eight Spring Gorge Scenic Area) and Wei Jianguo (Director-General of Changzhi Crossing Club) extracted spring water and poured it slowly into the pre-prepared water sample collection bottle for storage.
Water Collection Background
The Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese nation. “2019 China•Sanmenxia Crossing Mother River Campaign” was held at the Yellow River basin of Swan Lake National Urban Wetland Park at Sanmenxia on May 12th, 2019. Crossing the Yellow River was the best action to practice and commemorate Comrade Mao Zedong’s directive spirit of “swimming in the great rivers and seas and taking exercise amidst strong winds and waves” and repeated historical feats of crossing the great rivers and seas. This year marked the 10th anniversary of crossing the Mother River at Sanmenxia. In order to express the admiration and praise of the motherland and the Mother River by the Chinese people, two new rituals were added, namely “Lakes and Rivers Converging into the Mother River, Ten Thousand People Singing Song of Our Homeland”.
