Chinese Sturgeon Park is situated at Xiaoxita, Yichang of Hubei Province. It is one of the well known destinations of Yichang. Besides the specialized garden for Chinese Sturgeon, Crocodile Farm, Marine Life Corridor as well as Specimen Museum can all be found within the park.
Chinese Sturgeon, one of the oldest vertebrate is the king of the freshwater fish as it is the largest and lives the longest. An adult Chinese sturgeon can be longer than 4 meters with over 500 kilograms of weight. Chinese Sturgeon lives over the trunk stream of Yangtze River. From summer to autumn every year is the period for Chinese Sturgeon to lay eggs. During this period, schools of Chinese Sturgeon will be migrating from the shallow sea area to the upper reaches of Yangtze River. Anyway, the construction of Gezhouba Water Conservation project in the 1980s has blocked the migrating route of Chinese Sturgeon. As a result, Chinese sturgeon has lost their spawning area for reproducing offspring which has also put the survival of Chinese sturgeon at risk. In 1982 the Chinese government set up a major institution to protect the precious rare species, and to research the reproduction of the rare Chinese sturgeon in order to preserve them. As a result, Chinese Sturgeon Park was setup by the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute.