Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Red Cliffs, Jingzhou, Chengdu

Three strangers meet in Zhuo county and swear brotherhood in a peach garden: "We seek not to be born on the same day... We merely hope to die on the same day." The scene is the novel's, not history; the Records of the Three Kingdoms mention no sworn brotherhood. Zhuozhou's Sanyi Palace, begun in the Sui dynasty, was built to honour the legend. It was mostly destroyed in the Cultural Revolution at the end of the 1960s, then rebuilt and reopened in October 1998, with wooden statues of the three brothers over three metres tall.

Location precision: The legend ties to Zhuozhou by later tradition only; the novel does not name this temple. The pin marks the rebuilt Sanyi Palace.

Visitor guidance: Rebuilt temple with wooden statues of the three brothers.

Liu Bei calls on the hermit Zhuge Liang three times before he is received. History records the visits in one sentence; the novel expanded them into the classic "Three Visits to the Thatched Cottage". On the third, Zhuge Liang lays out the Longzhong Plan: Liu Bei should seize Jing Province, then Yi Province, ally with Sun Quan and face Cao Cao. Longzhong, 13 km from Xiangyang, is a protected scenic area, though Nanyang's Wolong Gang also claims the cottage.

Location precision: Where Zhuge Liang lived is disputed: Longzhong near Xiangyang and Wolong Gang in Nanyang both claim it. The pin marks Longzhong.

Visitor guidance: Scenic area about 13 km from Xiangyang.

Cao Cao's cavalry overtakes Liu Bei's people at Changban. In the novel Zhao Yun fights through the enemy lines, defeats Xiahou En and takes Cao Cao's Qinggang Sword, then finds Lady Mi, who gives up the infant A'dou and throws herself into a well; he straps the child to his body and fights his way out; when he hands A'dou over, Liu Bei throws his son to the ground. At the bridge Zhang Fei stands alone, bellows a challenge that shocks Xiahou Jie to death, and his men's branch-tied horses raise dust that suggests an ambush. History is plainer: Zhang Fei stayed behind with 20 horsemen to block the pursuit, the bridge already destroyed, and Cao Cao's men did not dare come near. Both Xiahou generals are invented.

Location precision: Sources place Changban near Dangyang or south of Jingmen's Duodao District; the pin marks Dangyang, not the bridge.

The allied armies of Sun Quan and Liu Bei beat Cao Cao here. In the novel Zhou Yu tries to outwit Zhuge Liang and fails, and the two must cooperate. The real battlefield has never been settled: Chibi City, renamed from Puqi in 1998, is perhaps the most accepted candidate, with cliff inscriptions at least 1,000 years old. Su Dongpo's Huangzhou hill, made famous by his poems, has been dismissed by virtually all scholars.

Location precision: The battlefield's location is disputed. The pin marks the modern Chibi battlefield site, one candidate, not a proven spot.

Of the novel's 120 chapters, 72 involve Jingzhou. After Red Cliffs, Sun Quan keeps asking Liu Bei to "return" the territory and is dismissed each time with a different excuse. Zhuge Liang also foils Zhou Yu's plot to hold Liu Bei hostage after his marriage to Lady Sun. The story ends badly: Guan Yu later "had already lost Jing Province before he knew it". The walls you see are Ming and Qing rebuilds, and Guandi Temple stands on Guan Yu's old mansion site.

Location precision: The novel's Jingzhou is the whole city and province; the pin marks the walled ancient city, whose walls are Ming and Qing rebuilds.

Visitor guidance: Guandi Temple is inside the south gate of the ancient city.

Following Zhuge Liang's Longzhong Plan, Liu Bei marches west into Yi Province and takes it from the governor Liu Zhang; Chengdu lies in that province. The Wuhou Shrine is a later memorial, not a site from the novel. It honours emperor and minister together, the only such shrine in China. The tomb and Liu Bei's temple date to 223, the surviving halls to 1672, and side halls hold statues of Guan Yu and Zhang Fei.

Location precision: The novel's events happen in and around Chengdu; the Wuhou Shrine is a later memorial to Liu Bei and Zhuge Liang, not a site from the story.

Visitor guidance: A museum complex; the shrine halls and Liu Bei's tomb are on the site.

After the disaster at Yiling, Liu Bei retreats and in the novel dies at Baidicheng. On his deathbed he tells Zhuge Liang he may take the throne if the heir proves inept; Zhuge Liang refuses and swears to remain faithful. The histories differ on the place: Records of the Three Kingdoms puts his death at the Yong'an palace, a few miles from the present Baidicheng. The temple complex now stands on an island after the Three Gorges Dam raised the water.

Location precision: The novel names Baidi, but history places the death at the Yong'an palace, a few miles away; the pin marks the Baidi temple.

Visitor guidance: The temple complex is on an island, linked to the north bank by a bridge.