Chinese cities flooded to make a lake and forgotten for 40 years!

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

The Qiandao Lake (Thousand Island Lake) is located in Zhejiang China and is an artificial lake made in 1959 after the Chinese completed a hydroelectric power station. They flooded a valley of 573 sq km. The lake is so named because it is dotted with 1078 large islands and a few thousand smaller ones.
Although the water from the reservoir is used to make mineral water, it has recently been turned into a tourist attraction because of the cities that were flooded to make way for the reservoir!
Shi Cheng and He Cheng were ancient cities built over 1300 years ago and were large business hubs along the Xin'anjiang river. The cities, along with many towns also flooded were forgotten for 40 years until a local tourism office thought of a way to make them into a tourist attraction.
There are plans in the works including scuba diving tours or even submarine tours, but the brittle condition of the walls could be a concern.

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