Day Eleven – The Lessor Three Gorges

The mighty Yangtze River, or Changjiang, is said to be the cradle of Chinese civilization, marking the boundary between north and south China. The Yangtze River flows 6,300 kilometers from Tibet to the East China Sea. It is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world. Our cruise features the Three Gorges, famous for their scenery of high cliffs, beautiful foliage and quaint farms.

Today's off-ship excursion will transfer us to two smaller ships for a cruise through the Lessor Three Gorges, along the Daninghe River, a tributary of the Yangtze. This first shot is of the main Yangtze River.

 

The city of Wushan where we docked for our excursion. Notice the now all too familiar apartment rows.

 

Making a living along the Yangtze.

 

The Dragon Bridge and entrance to the Lessor Three Gorges.

 

The first of the Lessor Three Gorges, The Longmen Gorge.

The second of the Lessor Three Gorges, the Bu Wa Gorge.

2,00 year old hanging coffin. The local tribes placed their leaders Coffin inside these small caves literally hundreds of feet up the cliff face. How they got them there remains speculation today.

  

This was a typical house on the side of the hill. The owner is seen fishing from his boat.

 

This walkway is a reconstruction of one just like it that was 400 km long and 1,500 years old. Unfortunately, the original ancient one was submerged forever by the dam.

 

Danielle in a striking pose.

 

Marcelle from our group with the Captain.

 

The third of the Lessor Three Gorges, The Di Qui Gorge.

 

Our gang on the San Pan taking us down the Di Qui Gorge.

 

Some locals serenading the tourists.

 

A neighbors San Pan, just like ours.

 

Lucie and our San Pan Captain.

 

The police were never very visible, but they were never very far either.

 

A family on an outing along the river.

 

Lucie and I enjoying the day.

 

Some monkeys along the bank.

 

The crayfish lady selling her daily catch.

 

Back on our cruise ship, this is a waterfall along the shore of the Yangtze. A sample of the scenery we found along the entire journey.

 

A city in lights along the bank. Time to head for dinner and our show, an amateur song and dance extravaganza put on by the crew. Tomorrow we continue along the Yangtze with a stop at the Ghost City.

Day Ten – Three Gorges Dam

Our day began for me with a buffet breakfast – I went for the omelet. Lucie choose to take advantage of the cruise and slept in, benefiting from room service breakfast compliments of my returning with a plateful of assortments. The day was going to be hot and sunny so we put on our suncream and headed for the deck. Today's excursion, the Three Gorges Dam wouldn't be until after lunch so we planned to hang out on deck and enjoy the sites.

The river was full of traffic of all sorts going up and downstream with cargo, passengers, and plenty of fishing boats.

 

Our first stop was at a small ethnic village which offered an optional tour, we opted to stay on board and relax.

 

These river hawks were plentiful and provided an engaging distraction to our morning in the sun.

 

More river traffic.

 

We docked for our tour of the Three Gorges Dam and were met by this creature guarding his Buddhist Temple. Before getting to our bus, we had to run the gauntlet of souvenir salespeople who were even more aggressive than usual.

 

The Three Gorges Dam Site was chosen for three main reasons, 1) it is the only place on the river where the bank is made of solid granite, most other locations are limestone; 2) There is a natural island in the middle of the river facilitating construction and allowing for the creation of the lock system; and 3) it is one of the wider points in the river, resulting in a slower current, again, facilitating construction.

 

This is a shot of a scale model of the dam site.

 

The dam features a 5 lock system for moving boat traffic up and downstream. Owned by the people, it is free to all travelers, as long as you have an appointment. Pictured are locks 1 and 5, respectively.

 

While not the largest dam, the Three Gorges Project has the largest power station in the world, with a maximum power generation capacity of 100 billion kilowatts per hour. Even with this enormous capability, the Three Gorges main purpose is not power generation, it is flood control. Its flood control capacity is 22 billion cubic meters, raising the prevention standard from one flood every ten years to one every hundred years. Before the dam, the last flood in 1988 resulted in 250 billion yuan in economic devastation, more than offsetting the total project cost of 200 billion yuan.

 

Access to the dam is strictly controlled by the army and security is similar to boarding a plane. After our tour we re-boarded our ship and headed to the locks for our appointment. The Tanzaling Suspension Bridge marks the entrance to the dam site.

 

Our first, and incredible day, on the Yangze has come to a close. Tomorrow, more cruising and a small boat tour of the Lessor Three Gorges.