Three Gorges, Yangtze River Cruise

Our ship is the East Queen, reputed to be the most luxurious on the river. The service is great but the ship’s age is starting to show. Our ship is less than half full which we’ve been told is partly due to upcoming renovations that will take the ship out of service. Also, the up river tours tend to be less popular because they add an extra day to the trip. Fellow passengers consist of a rowdy group of English retirees and a few Chinese-American couples.

We reach the Three Gorges Dam early in the cruise and it is immense. This is one of the largest dams in the world and was built for the dual purposes of protecting the down stream communities from dangerous flooding as well as to generate much needed power for the growing population. The water level will rise about 165 meters (~500 feet) and had already risen 150 meters when we were there. Officially there will be 26 turbines to generate electricity but the ‘public secret’ is that there will actually be 34 turbines when all construction is completed.

The dam required the displacement of over one million Chinese citizens including entire cities. In addition to concerns about the environmental impact, a whole way of life for river people is being destroyed. For these folks progress means entering the tourism industry, rowing boats filled with Westerners up some of the smaller tributaries. As we enter the locks, concerns for these people fade away. It takes three hours for our boat to pass through, rising almost 500 feet. You almost forget the millions of tons of water threatening to come gushing through.

After the dam, we continue several hundred kilometers through immense gorges. We spent hours on the top deck in awe of steep lush cliffs rising up on either side. This is a welcome period of relaxation after the hectic cities of Beijing and Xi’an. Next we are off to see the pandas in Chengdu!

written by  benjgolf on May 17, 2007 from Yichang, China
from the travel blog: Tour de Asia
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