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.
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