Damn that Dam is Big!
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Yichang,
China
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Our next stop brought us to Yichang - where we would pick up our boat for the Yangzi (I've also seen it spelled Yangtze, but anyways) River cruise and the spot from where we would go check out the Three Gorges Damn (what I understand to currently be the largest engineering project on Earth). We dumped our bags at a hotel and had a great lunch - they gave us our private dining room! Apparently they were trying to show off because they don't get a lot of tourists! Sadly, we weren't staying at that hotel, but the food was nevertheless quite tasty!
We caught our boat that night - I was quite pleasantly surprised with the cabin I got - very cozy! That night we went up to the bar and drank a bit and played cards - although the VERY loud and active karaoke going on made it rather difficult (our guide did a few good numbers though! I was WAY too sober to participate!). The next morning Ana and I went with our guide on an excursion from the boat and were treated with some of the most amazing vistas I've seen so far on this trip. The scenery of the Yangzi (3rd longest river in the world next to the Nile and Amazon I was told) and the Three Gorges area was so impressive, it's impossible to capture it words. What was even more amazing was how high and tall the looming cliff faces were, and yet the water had already risen a great deal because of the dam's near completion - how high it must have all been about 20 years ago!! It was also pointed out the numerous new towns and cities that had risen up as people were relocated to make way for the dam and the rising waters. Hundreds of thousands of people had moved to higher ground, and even more had moved into the larger cities a little further away. The dimensions of this project were incredible! We were also treated to a ride in one of the local boats that involved a lot of yelling and spitting, but was fun nonetheless!
We stopped that night in Fengjie, and ancient town and one in which we had the most amazing views of the 3rd Gorge, the Qutang Gorge (actually I think it's the 1st, but because of the direction we were going, it was the 3rd for us) - it's actually the site that makes it on the 10 Yuan note of Chinese currency (the pictures, when I put them up, will show all of this I hope!). The next day we caught a hydrofoil back to Yichang and hopped right on the bus to the Three Gorges Dam!
I must say, it actually wasn't as big as I expected it to look. Mind you, it was obviously quite massive and the Ship Locks area was impressive (apparently the largest in the world!) but the design was rather plain - I expected some huge, sweeping, curved dam, but it was rather utilitarian in appearance. The immensity of the project still impresses me, and while I'm not sure the ecological and social consequences can be justified, one cannot help but be awed by the scope of the work itself!
The rest of our time in Yichang was pretty chill - for a minor city of like 4 million people, there was precious little to do! On to Xi'An!
