Rollin’ on the river
I’ll be the first to admit that modern marvels of engineering leave me lukewarm. Sure, I can appreciate architecture and have spent more than one excursion ogling old buildings or covered bridges but I could not get excited about our visit to the Three Gorges Dam. Let me provide some background information for those who are as engineering-challenged as myself:
The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric power project in the world. In addition to providing a huge amount of clean electricity(and boy do they need CLEAN power over there)the dam prevents the deadly annual flooding downriver and provides a much more navigable trip for ships. I suppose we could argue the socio-environmental impact the project had as all the poor folks and critters that inhabited the area were “relocated” to newly built cities and had to abandon their traditional lifestyles but hey, I’m no bleeding-heart liberal just a concerned world citizen.
Monument at the dam site.
The main project was completed in 10 years. This is tremendously frightening because if the Chinese ever really want to do something it will happen in a heartbeat. I don’t know about where you live but Interstate 66 here in the Metro D.C. area has been having one lane added in each direction between 2 exits and that has taken 2 years and isn’t completed yet. What hope do we have???
Part of the dam project is the lock system that will allow our ship as well as those with much deeper drafts to go downstream. The series of 5 locks takes about 4 hours to navigate through and can hold up to a 10,000 ton vessel. Needless to say, we will pass a lot of freighters on our cruise that are heading upstream from the port of Shanghai. We are scheduled to begin our pass through the locks this evening and today we have a visit to see the dam up close and personal (yawn).
A view of the locks
At the gate of the lock from our balcony
The project will be completely finished when the ship elevator that is currently under construction is done. The Chinese government provides all the propaganda touting the benefits of the dam but it has been controversial even in China. When we return to our ship we are informed that our scheduled time for the locks has been pushed back. It will be sometime during the wee hours. There are many passengers interested in watching our progress but concerned they will fall asleep and miss it. Not to worry! When we begin our entry the noise that occurs is enough to wake the dead. I steal a peek through my balcony window and realize that we are encased in a concrete coffin. We will move from this concrete coffin to the next one until we complete our course through the five locks. I choose to spend this time in a state of unconsciousness. My insomniac spouse decides to join the ranks on the deck.
Meanwhile, we are departing port in Jingzhou and we once again get some insight into the Chinese personality. There are several swimmers stroking in the Yangtze between the cruise ships, barges and freighters. Remember, it is November and these nuts have no wet suits. They swim like they drive! Fearless and against the tide.
Swimmers
We leave the locks and proceed downstream to head to our next adventure. We will visit a Chinese Disneyland-type attraction(not to be confused with the real Chinese Disneyland which is being built in Shanghai).
This will be a re-creation of a traditional Chinese fishing village complete with staged “crying wedding”. It seems that wedding parties of this tribe of people cry profusely during the ceremony.
I am looking forward to leaving the cities as I am sick of the pollution, traffic and concrete jungles. This has been less of a vacation and more like a forced march so far but I realize it’s the only way we could have been able to see so many wondrous sites. Although there is a lot of ‘traffic’ on the river floating along has a calming effect on me. Don & I spend a lot of time on or looking out our balcony and enjoying the view.
Approaching the village.
Tranquility
We dock and are told it will be a 25 minute hike to get to the village. It’s humid and verdant here and the air is sweet. We set forth.
stylized woman statue
traditional fishing boats
traditional courting ritual
guy plays a flute to a girl on a boat
if the girl on the boat looks at the guy they’re dating
As we proceed along we encounter some more staged but still beautiful scenes.
Eventually, we arrive at the wedding venue but not until we pass ancient burial sites, a waterfall and an old guy with monkeys!
2000+ year old coffins tucked into a mountainside cranny
Look closely for the monkeys
At the wedding hoping there’s a cocktail hour
The wedding is about to commence and they recruit some poor Aussie guy who’s with the tour to play the part of the groom. The bridal party begins their wailing and when the ceremony is over the groom is whisked away to the bridal suite and behind a back-lit shade a depiction of the wedding night takes place. (Who knew the Chinese fishermen were into burlesque??) The poor Aussie is then thrown out to rejoin his real wife and look forward to the incessant heckling that will occur when he returns to our ship.
We are reluctant to leave this beautiful environment but since there has been no bathroom we could use during this whole excursion we move much more quickly through the rainforest and back to the Sinorama Diamond.
I don’t care if it is Disneyland, it smells better than Beijing!
Next: The Shennu Stream
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