Wu Gorge sometimes called Great Gorge , is the second gorge of the Three Gorges system on the Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

, People's Republic of China. Formed by the Wu River

Wu River (Yangtze River)

Wu Jiang , known also as Wu River, is the largest southern tributary of the Yangtze River. Nearly its entire length of runs within the mountainous and ethnically diverse region of Guizhou.-Course:...

, it stretches 45 kilometres (28 mi) from Wushan to Guandukou, and is located downstream of Qutang Gorge

Qutang Gorge

The Qutang Gorge is the shortest and most spectacular of China's Three Gorges.Immediately downstream of the ancient village Baidicheng the Yangtze River passes between the Chijia Mountain on the north and the Baiyan Mountain on the south...

 and upstream of Xiling Gorge

Xiling Gorge

Xiling Gorge is a gorge on the Yangtze River in China. It is located in Zigui County and Yiling District of Hubei Province, from Xiangxi down to the western suburbs of Yichang, and is the largest and farthest downstream of the Three Gorges....

. The gorge straddles the boundary between Wushan County of Chongqing

Chongqing

Chongqing is a major city in Southwest China and one of the five national central cities of China. Administratively, it is one of the PRC's four direct-controlled municipalities , and the only such municipality in inland China.The municipality was created on 14 March 1997, succeeding the...

 Municipality (formerly part of Sichuan

Sichuan

' , known formerly in the West by its postal map spellings of Szechwan or Szechuan is a province in Southwest China with its capital in Chengdu...

 Province) and Badong County, Hubei

Hubei

' Hupeh) is a province in Central China. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Lake Dongting...

 Province.

The Gorge has been known as the Wu Gorge since at least the Three Kingdoms Period, when it was recorded in the geographical treatise Shui Jing Zhu

Shui Jing Zhu

Shui Jing Zhu is a work on the ancient geography of China. It is an annotated and much expanded version of an older text, the Shui Jing , which has been lost.The annotated version was compiled by Li Daoyuan Shui Jing Zhu is a work on the ancient geography of China. It is an annotated and much...

. In 589 AD, General Lü Zhongsu of the Chen Dynasty

Chen Dynasty

The Chen Dynasty , also known as the Southern Chen Dynasty, was the fourth and last of the Southern dynasties in China, eventually destroyed by the Sui Dynasty....

 stationed troops in the Wu and Xiling Gorges in an attempt to stop the advancing Sui Dynasty

Sui Dynasty

The Sui Dynasty was a powerful, but short-lived Imperial Chinese dynasty. Preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties, it ended nearly four centuries of division between rival regimes. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty....

 armies. Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

poet Yang Jiong wrote a classical poem entitled "Passing Wu Gorge" .

The mountains on both sides of the Yangtze, through which the river cuts the Wu Gorge, are known as the Wu Mountains (巫山, Wū Shān).