Yangtze Cruise and The Three Gorges Dam

Trip Start Sep 01, 2007
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Trip End Oct 22, 2007


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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Our last day was an even earlier start so we could visit the giant new dam and see it up close and personal. Unfortunately this was a really rushed excursion. As Bruce from Australia put it, "when my grandchildren ask me what I did at The Three Gorges Dam I'll tell them I got on the bus and off the bus and on the bus and off the bus...". Sadly this was very much the case with a huge number of tourist buses and tourists doing the same. It is an awesome sized construction project and, with over 30 turbines generating an extraordinarily large amount of power, by far the largest Hydro-Electric project in the world. It would have been good to have a bit more time to see it.
 
We then rushed back to the boat so we could put our luggage outside our cabins and then rush into breakfast before reaching our final destination of Yichang, where we disembarked.
Three Gorges Dam
Three Gorges Dam
  
After saying goodbye to our new friends we found our guide and set off for our next excursion. While Yichang is important to the old and new dams located in and near the city, it is somewhat devoid of much else. It does have an amazing amount of greenery and very little industry so the air is clean and fresh. We were taken off to the local museum where not only did we find artefacts excavated from The Three Gorges Dam project but also our new friends from the cruise, Pat & Paul and Bruce & Pauline! After our tour around the museum and shop where we could buy important and certified antiques, we decided to get our three guides to take us all somewhere for tea.
 
Shanghai had been in the path of a Super Typhoon so we did not know if we would be leaving on time or at all today. We had a great time together as we whiled away some time taking tea before saying goodbye again.
 
Then, as we were on a later flight, our guide thought it would be a good idea to take us to a silk embroidery factory (not knowing he had managed to get the worlds worst shoppers). Yet again, we met up with Pat ad Paul! It seems to be a well worn path.
 
Having done the tour we were taken to the airport at about 15H00 where we discovered our 17H55 plane had been delayed until a yet-to-be-announced time because of the typhoon. Sadly we were supposed to be on the earlier plane which did leave on time but our travel agents made an unannounced change to our itinerary (I see a pattern emerging).
 
We did eventually get a plane and thankfully left for Shanghai on the night we were meant to albeit a bit later. I am writing this last sentence while sitting on the plane, half way to Shanghai at 23H55!
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