The city of Sizhou is a remarkable treasure both archaeologically and historically. For more than 300 years it has been submerged in water, but surprisingly is still intact, allowing for the modern-day research of life long ago. Sizhou is often compared with Italy's ancient Pompeii which was buried centuries ago by volcanic ash, preserving the city and its citizens in the act of living their daily life and allowing us to catch a glimpse into the ways of the ancient world.
Sizhou was first founded in the Northern Zhou Dynasty (557 C 581 A.D.) and was rebuilt during the Tang Dynasty (690 C 705 A.D.). Later in the Song Dynasty (960 C 1279) a new city was built beside Sizhou, opposite the Bian River. In the Ming Dynasty the city wall between these two cities was taken down and a wide bridge was built over the river in order to combine the two into one big metropolis.
Throughout Chinese history, devastating floods in the Yangtze River Basin area have always been an issue, and cities have come up with a number of ways to address this serious threat. It was common for many cities in China to design the city walls with an elaborate gate system that allowed people to evacuate when there was a flood. Outside the main city gate there were six semi-circular enclosures and five enclosure gates; there was one enclosure outside the gate and only there were two outside the south gate that doubled as sluice gates. When there was flood, the enclosure gate should be shut first, keeping the water at bay and buying time for people to escape on the causeway of the enclosure gate. In the Ming Dynasty, large hydraulic projects were put implemented to protect Sizhou and the nearby imperial mausoleum, and also to maximize the transportation potential of Hongze Lake.
In 1680, during the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River and Huaihe River flooded and Sizhou suffered through 70 days of non-stop rainfall, which in combination with the sand and silt from the two rivers, completely submerged the city. Luckily the city was not directly in the pathway of the destructive waters so it was not completely destroyed but submerged, and to this day is almost fully preserved.
