Three Gorges Dam - Blogabond

Well, we still have rain. It is also very foggy. Even if it was sunny, according to our guide Stephen, it would still be foggy due to the humidity, amount of water in the gorge, and the height of the gorge walls (or in some cases, shear cliffs). In any case, the pictures from today are a bit disappointing, too. I'll try and describe what the camera was unable to capture. All my info comes from the guide(s) or reading I have done on my own.

The following picture is of a new community that the government needed to provide for those affected by the construction of the dam:

During the construction of the dam, more than one million people were displaced from their homes. The reason: they are all under water now. The construction of the dam caused the Yangtze to rise more than 70 meters from it's previous height. For all the metrically-impaired out there including my life-time membership, that's about 230 feet. We passed several of these communities as we continued down stream.

This next picture shows us entering the narrower portion of the gorge:

We had to transfer to a smaller boat due to the depth of this river decreasing the further we went up river. This is not part of the Three Gorges Dam itself. This is a tributary of the Yangtze River but whose water level also rose.

As you can see, the fog is not conducive to photography.

This next picture shows a little bit more visually the river's depth change:

This body of land is now an island. Previous to the dam being built, it was part of the mainland (a peninsula actually). Now, you can only access this by boat.

The next two pictures just prove that Eric and I were here:

Here are a few pictures from the front of the ship:

Again, detail is difficult because of the type of camera I have and the fog. The peaks of these mountains range from 1000-2000 feet in height.

The tributary/river we are entering actually has a name but I can't say or spell it so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We passed this lady who is either coming or going:

Our little ship (we had transferred to a smaller boat due to the depth of the river a little more downstream) almost capsized her. She barely had tome to turn into the waves before being hit with them.

This is a picture I saw a lot of where there was either a man or woman rowing up or down the river.

Here is Grand View Peak (the little point in the top left of the picture):

This is the highest peak in the gorge at a little over 1000 meters (3900 ft):

If you look at the picture, you can see high-water marks on the walls of the gorge. This happens every summer. In the winter, the water is allowed to rise to the top water-mark. In the Spring/Summer, the water is lowered to allow flood waters a place to go rather than all over the land. The water-level depth that you can see from level to high-water mark is about 50 meters (more than 150 ft).

This cave is pretty cool (though the photography is not):

It's 100 meters high and about 30 meters wide. It's called Swallow Cave because that's where swallows nest. It is considered bad luck in this area of China to disturb the nests for eggs and so any swallows that nest here are safe from being the main ingredient in soup.

The next few pictures show traditional Chinese culture in these shallow areas of the river(s). We transferred from our smaller boat to these traditional wooden boats that have been used for over 2000 years:

Only 17 or so people can get on one of these boats:

Here is our guide who speaks Chinese first and then gives us two Americans the short version:

They are rowed/paddled by up to six men and a captain. We were rowed about ¾ of a mile up the river. The depth of the river continuously became more shallow.

When we arrived at a point where it was too shallow to paddle, the men hopped out of the boat, grabbed lengths of 'rope' made from bamboo, and pulled us up the river:

That is how it has been done for thousands of years in this area of China!

In this next picture, the man is 75 years old and has been doing this his whole life:

The men farm during the day and then make one or two trips doing this for tourists now. I can't see an ounce of body fat on this guy. He was nimble as well as he hopped in and out of the boat several times.

These men only recently started wearing clothes. They are too poor to travel way up stream and attain clothing. However, with tourism becoming more and more important to China's economy, even the locals are cashing in.

This guy is the only chubby guy among the men.

If you guessed that he was the boss than pat yourself on the back! He was yelling constantly at these guys to move here or there. Apparently yelling doesn't shed the fat like manual work does.

Don't know why I took this picture:

It's China's flag and hopefully I'll learn soon what the four smaller stars around the big star represent.

As we headed back to our ship, we passed the city of Badong (bow dong):

The bridge was built back in 2004 and was modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge:

That's what they told us. There must be another Golden Gate Bridge because I do not see much of a resemblance.

We made it back to the ship and immediately set sail for the Three Gorges Dam. This picture is of our main guide Stephen:

The show in the bar/ballroom that night consisted of more traditional Chinese dancing as well as crowd participation. The little girl in this picture:

got up on stage and sang something (Remember, I am not Chinese). She was pretty darn cute. Right after she started, there was a problem where the mic went dead and the music stopped. After hitting a reset switch, the song began again from the beginning. It didn't faze this girl at all! She just started from the beginning again. After the song, her dad went up on stage and presented her with a flower that was on every table. Pretty neat!

Eric decided to go up on stage and show his coordination and MJ moves. Yes, MJ is dead and Eric proved that rather well! The staff had 6-foot long bamboo poles that they would rhythmically slap together or slap on the ground. Eric never quite got it and almost broke his ankles when he should have been in the air (when the poles slapped together) instead of on the ground. Here is a sequence of pictures:
Getting Directions:

Trying with a helper:

On his own:

Forgive him for he knows not what he does!

I was called up to play musical chairs with three other guests. The idea was to 'dance' (I also proved the MJ is dead) around a group of chairs until Stephan stopped the music and announced something that we had to get from the audience. I did well the first round, ripping a shoe off an elderly gentleman. However, the second round required a sock. I went back to the traumatized man whose shoe I had just stolen only to find out he wasn't wearing socks. I then jumped over he and his wife and started ripping off the sock of a Japanese man. I almost took his lower leg with me but when I turned around and saw that the other two had already found their magic sock, I left his leg alone. I apologized to the man as a tourniquet was applied to slow the bleeding. I won a map of the Three Gorges Dam so all in all it was quite fun! I may need a little forgiveness, too.

We hit the Three Gorges Dam at about midnight. The pictures all turned out black due to the rain, fog, and lack of a manly flash on my camera. What I can tell you is that it is ENORMOUS. The Grand Coulee Dam in the US is pretty big, putting out about 800 K-Watts of power through it's four or five turbines. This dam? 22 turbines and 18,000 K-watts of power. I have no idea what I just typed because I don't know anything about electricity. What I do know is that the Grand Coulee Dam is big. This dam is like comparing an elephant and a gerbil. Here is proof that I was there:

You must look carefully to see the 'doors' between Lock #2 and #3. Each 'door' weighs more than 8000 tons. While you can't really see them, they are huge.

Here are pictures from Monday morning right before the cruise ended:

Here you can get an idea of large the 'doors' are. They are not called doors but I don't remember what they called them.

I only wish that the pictures would have been more clear. I learned that if we took the cruise from Yi Chang to Chongqing (the opposite run), we would have gone through the five locks during the daytime. Oh well, maybe next time. This was the highlight so far of the trip and yet I can't show you visually how cool it was. In any case, I highly recommend the cruise if ever coming here. It is worth the money!

After the cruise, we boarded a bus for a 5-hour ride to a hostel in Wuhan (woo h on). We stayed overnight and then caught a train to Guilin. Guess what the metal buckets are for on the floor:

If you guessed for garbage, you are half right. They are also convenient if you have to pee or even a little more. Just make sure you bring your own paper. I'm glad the bus wasn't crowded.

written by

akstoltzy on June 7, 2010 from Yichang, China

from the travel blog: China

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This is HUGE.....when looking at those pictures....I felt small....it reminded me of that movie.... "Clash of the Titans"

This is HUGE!
NEAT!

Next time I see Eric on Skpe, I expect him to do a demostration of his moves! I have got to see that!

written by Dana Craig on June 9, 2010

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