The width of the Yangtze at the Qutang Gorge mouth narrows to less than 100 meters. Cliffs and bluffs in both banks are sharp enough as if they were just cut by swords. On a square place on the mountain, 5 big characters were engraved to tell you that “Kuimen Col stands grand in the world”. Ladies and gentlemen, here we are at the Kuimen Col, the west gate of the great Three Gorges. The highlands on both sides of Kuimen were named respectively as the “Baiyan Mountain (White Salt Mountain)” in the south and the “Chijia Mountain (Red Coat Mountain)” in the north. Two great mountains stand here face to face, straightly, lofty, and sharply, almost like the greatest gate set by the nature. It’s just here that the cliffs are high to over 500 m; the river is just narrow to 100 m; but the river speed is over 50,000 cubic meters per second. Because the rocks on the Chijia Mountains are covered by the ferric oxide liquor, it looks like being in red from far away. That’ the reason as called the “Red Coat Mountain”. The Baiyan Mountain which means “White Salt Mountain” looks like being in white because the rocks are covered by salt-like white calcium liquid. Looking at each other under the sunshine from the other side of the river, one in red and the other in white, we will find what magnificent scenery it is!

On the bluff and cliffs of both banks, there were many steles left during the past dynasties, where it looked like a Chinese traditional hall. As a result, people called here the Hall of Pink Walls. However, the reserved water has submerged lots of these steles, with only some most valuable ones protected by rebuilt and moved to a higher place. And the most precious “Thousand Characters Stele” made in the South Song Dynasty was cut and moved to the museum.