Legend Heading Legend HeadingCharting Forgotten Places
← All case files
Sunken City · Advanced dives

Shi Cheng, the Lion City

Flooded 1959 · 26 to 40 m, Qiandao Lake, Zhejiang, China
ACCESSIBLE
Evidence status: Historical tradition. no documented source (historical tradition); legal status unknown (manual verification recommended). This account is presented as historical tradition, not verified fact. Manual verification recommended. Repository evidence: 0 sources · 0 timeline events · 0 media items · legal unknown · view on the Map Evidence on file: historical tradition

Shi Cheng, the Lion City: still unexplained.

A complete Ming-era city, carved gates and all, in cold dark freshwater

The law of this ground: Diving with licensed Chinese operators only, deep, cold, low-visibility; advanced certification required.
The subject
developing the photograph…
The manifest
A complete Ming-era city, carved gates and all, in cold dark freshwater
The account

In 1959 the valley of Shi Cheng was flooded for a dam, and a city founded under the Tang dynasty went under a lake, intact. No surf, no worm, no salt: down in the cold dark the wooden beams still stand, and the carved lions and phoenixes on the gates look freshly cut. Divers drop through black water and land in a Ming street. It is the best-preserved drowned city on earth, and it is barely lit by a torch.

Leads, where the trail points now
  • A 1,300-year-old Chinese city deliberately flooded in 1959 to build the Xin'an dam, now sitting intact under Qiandao Lake, the Lion City.
  • It is a controlled dive site at about 40 meters, perfectly preserved, with carved arches and walls standing.
  • It is not lost but submerged on purpose, so the work here is documentation and careful diving, not a search.
What the record holds

What remains open

  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
What we know, and what we don't
Established

No documentary claim is yet established. The account rests on tradition.

Still open
  • No period map of the site has surfaced.
  • No contemporary press coverage has been found.
The evidence room

No documentary or visual exhibits have been located yet. The trail below and the open leads are where this dossier grows next — every exhibit that enters here carries a source.

Where the trail points now
  • A 1,300-year-old Chinese city deliberately flooded in 1959 to build the Xin'an dam, now sitting intact under Qiandao Lake, the Lion City.
  • It is a controlled dive site at about 40 meters, perfectly preserved, with carved arches and walls standing.
  • It is not lost but submerged on purpose, so the work here is documentation and careful diving, not a search.
  • Search Library of Congress + DPLA (IIIF) for period cartography of the site.
  • Run Chronicling America for dated newspaper mentions.
  • Query NARA for archival records tied to the site.

Have a source, a map, or a clipping? Add a lead and it enters the record with its citation.

Start the hunt here
The first leads, so no one walks in cold.
Sources and the record
Related case files

The full hunt kit

Starting brief, what's known and disputed, evidence timeline, source list, map card, coordinate-confidence and legal-access summaries, and a field checklist, free with a Fellowship account.

Latest Word From the Newswire

Context, not proof. The dossier's own sources remain the evidence record.

Checking the wire…

Chart position 29.605°, 118.957° (approx.) View on the Map