Three Gorges Dam Project
Trip Start
Jul 08, 2007
1
7
31
Trip End
Sep 13, 2007
Yichang,
China
Saturday, July 14, 2007
We had some time to grab some food from the local shops or if we wanted to have breakfast in one of the hotels which was very expencive!!! So i opted with the old standby of fruit!! Before getting onto the bus for a 5hour ride to the Three Gorges Dam Project wich is one of the things i am really looking forward to!! There we met our local guide who would be with us to the Dam and back giving us more info about the local area, he was a good guide!!
Around lunch time we stopped at a hotel where we were lead to a private room for lunch where there was a welcome message and then they started bringing in food, and they kept bringing in the food. THey stopped when the Lazy Susan in the middle of the table was full!! those things are such a good invention; they stop people reaching across the table for the food. instead you just turn the lazy susan until the required dish was in front of you. But when there are 9 people around the table getting to the dish you want can take a long time!!!!
After that amazing meal its back on the bus for us. No rest for the weary here!! its non stop!! More of a bus ride till we get to the dam. Having to pass through some checkpoints we get in line to go through security where they x ray everyones bags before we are able to get onto the tourist bus that takes all of the tourists to the different areas of the TGP (three gorges project). All of these busses are exactly the same and blue...
The trip starts off with the bus taking us to a man made mountain they call it but it looks more like a hill to me... But whatever it was it had a good view of the Dam and surounding area. The locks and the boat lift. Then it was down to a viewpoint right next to the Dam where we were able to look at the dam wall right next to the boat lift. Then the drive over the Dam to a park where you could see the outlets of the dam.
**I will put in pictures when i find somewhere were i can that will explain this better so i dont have to go into a lot of detail!!!**
Back at the enterance where it was back on the bus to out boat. We will be spending the night on board. Going further up river above the dam to see some of the area that will be fluded once the dam reaches its highest point in 2009 of i think 175m above sealevel. To get to the boat we walk down this really long seps to get to the water level. Getting on the boat we climbed up three stories to the FIRST CLASS Floor!! The rooms are what you would expect on a boat, but nice!! two beds, bathroom and the most important thing in there is the Air Conditioner!!
Dinner we had in the resturant on board where the food was still good!! In the resturant we met another tour group, this one from GAP tours, they invited us to one of the poeple on the trips birthday celebration where we had cake and then played spoons with them but with forks instead! it was great to meet new people, we did exactly the same thing as they did for the next couple of days. With George helping their guide with the chinese as their guide didnt speek and chinese... Go George!! Intrepid is a good group to be going with!!
Met some other western people on the boat, they were on another tour. They were a great laugh and i spent the evening sing with them in the coridor of the cabins as the outside had already been locked to stop pirates getting on board. Seriously. There have been in the recent past pirates of the Yangse, they had stolen stuff from rooms and went away before dawn... none affected us on this trip!!!
