Yangtze River & 3 Gorge Dam

Well it is day 10 and we have flown from Xiam to Wuhan then taken a 5 hour bus ride to Yaching and the the Victoria cruises on the Yangtze River. I think on this trip we will use every mode of transportation except a horse and buggy. We have spent 4 nights on the river and taken several shore excursions. The first one was to the Three Gorge Dam site. Even though the air is polluted and visibility was not great it still was an impressive site. Next we went though the 5 locks which got us to the other side of the dam. The picture I have included does not do it justice as to the size of the lock doors. Next we cruised though the Three Gorges which were formed after the dam was put in operation. They expect to complete the dam by the end of 08' and it will be the largest in the world.

We then took a shore excursion up the Shennong Stream one of the many tributaries along the way. This involved taking to boats each smaller as we went along. The last one was a saipan that was manned by 4 oarsmen who had to get and pull us along the stream for the last few hundred yards. Quite an adventure!

So on the 14th day we docked at Chongqing and met our bus for another 5 hour drive to Chengdu. However before we left town we had a chance to visit the Flying Tires museum and General Stilwell's headquarters. Both help the Chinese fight off the Japanese during WWII.

As we get to Chengdu we realize it is another big city with over 8 million population. Anyway we overnighted in a 5 star hotel and fly out to Lhasa, Tibet in the AM.

Dec 7, 2007

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