We cruised through the night and when we awoke
we had begun to reach the mountains.
Everywhere that the mountains did not come
right down to the waters edge with rocks was being utilized for farm land.
Our schedule was planned for us to reach the
long narrow city of Yichang at 8:00 am where we would enter the lock of the
"GAZHOUBA DAM" and be raised some 80+ feet so that we could
continue our journey up stream and reach the site of the new "THREE
GORGES DAM PROJECT" around 10:00 am.
The lock at the Gazhouba Dam is extremely
narrow and our captain did a marvelous job of fitting us into it with only
a couple of feet clearance on either side of the ship.
To add a little bit of fun to the lock passage,
the crew sold tickets at 1 Yuan per chance or 12 for 10 Yuan, where we
would guess the number of minutes it took from the time the back gate of
the lock enclosed us in the lock and the ship rose to the new level and the
forward lock began to open. I took 10 Yuan worth or 12 tickets.
After going through the lock, we cruised
through the Eastern part of the 1st of the famous Gorges of the Yangtze
River, the "XILING GORGE" which is cut into two parts by the new
THREE GORGES DAM PROJECT which we would get to explore after
enjoying the 1-1/2 hour cruise to the Village
of "SANDOUPING" where we disembarked, climbed 126 steps straight
up and boarded busses to visit the construction site.
The Three
Gorges Dam Project has caused lots of consternation around the world
as it will, basically destroy most of the "Three Gorges of the Yangtze
River" by the end of 2002 and will totally obliterate the entire area
by forming a wide lake by the time the project is complete in the year
2008. (Note: The Village of Sandouping no longer exists, since construction
began it has become a thriving city. A comparison was made with
Skagway Alaska which blossomed in the late 1890's during the Gold rush and
withered as soon as it was over. This is not expected to happen to the new
city which has replaced the sleepy village as it will
require quite a population to operate and maintain the new dam.)
They first took us to the "Preview
Center" where we could see lots of pictures of the construction from
ground breaking to the current status of the construction. There also was a
large, to scale, table top model of the entire project for us to study.
We were then taken on a bumpy construction road
to an observation site located at the northern end of the dam at the level
of the top of the dam. Riding up we were treated to many views of the
construction of the new locks as well as the dam.
We were at the top level (185 meters) and could
look down and see the 175 meter level where the water would eventually
reach when the entire project is completed in the year 2008.
By noon we were back on the ship and
for the rest of the afternoon we cruised through the western part of the
XILING GORGE and about 5:00 pm we entered and passed through the second of
the three Gorges the "WU GORGE". The afternoon is chronicled in
"DAY 6 - PART 2"