Today we finally arrived at the first of the three Gorges. The downstream damn known as the 3 Gorges Damn is the subject of some controversy. It has so far raised the water level of the Yangtze from a few meters to 165m (eventually to 175m) displaced some 1.3million people and covered up quite a bit of the riverside scenery in the process.
Above: China Telecom getting in on the marketing. The damn will provide the equivalent power of 14 nuclear power stations, this equates to 5% of China's current power demand. I'm sure that the environmentalists would complain about the damn or the nuclear option. What you don't find out that easily though is that in the countryside surrounding the damn the are building 300 coal fired power stations. The pollution from these will certainly obscure more than the rising water from the damn.
Above: One of the views within the gorges. Below: One of the new towns housing some of those displaced by the rising waters. As you can see the Gorges are still impressive even with the increased water level.
Below: Another view from the gorge, you can see one of the many ships that transport coal down the river.
Further upriver is the Shennong Stream. Once the site of a market place for local farmers and fisherman now a tourist attraction. After paddling you rapidly upstream the oarsmen jump out and drag the boat upstream through the rapids.
After dinner it took a while to notice that the boat had stopped and we in fact at the 3 Gorges damn. So how does a boat get from one side to the other? A 5 stage ship lock taking over 3 hours gently lowers the ship some 150m to the river below.
The lock which is the biggest in thew world boats some impressive stats. There are a total of 24 doors each weighing in at 876 tonnes, the cost $750m. The actual experience of traversing the lock is a lot less impressive. Nearly everyone was on deck for the 1st gate, by numbers 3 & 4 it was just me and some hardened Ozzies and in style I was the last man standing as we cleared the last set of gates.
Highlights: Stunning scenary and the worlds largest lock
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