Yangtze River Cruise - Tour Day 4

We began our Yangtze River Cruise to Chongqing through breathtaking scenery of steep cliffs and the famous Three Gorges. I decided to do some Tai Chi Before breakfast and our first tour of the day to the Tribe of the Three Gorges located in the middle of the Xiling Gorge.

It is a very scenic spot and the culture of the Ba and Chu minority tribes. There are many photo opportunities and they locals are strategically placed along the way. There are so many tourists which are mostly domestic it spoils it a bit but the beauty of this area is  to spoilt. The locals put on a wedding  which is amazing as they grab a tourist to be the groom.

After a very nice lunch I head for a massage as my shoulder it causing me a lot of pain the last tow days. My masseuse kept telling me very tight, very tight as he worked on it. Best money I ever spent, this guy was fantastic. My shoulder now feels great. We docked at Sandouping to see the largest hydroelectric project in the world - The Three Gorges Dam.

The second shore excursion is to the dam which is 2,335 meters long, 185 meters high, 18 meters wide at the top and 130 meters wide at the bottom. In winter it reaches 175mtrs above sea level which is about 110mtrs above the original level prior to 2003. The Three Gorges Dam has created a 600km long reservoir with a storage capacity of 39.9 billion cubic meters of water. The cost if the dam is estimated at $28 billion US dollars. 1.3 million people had to be relocated flooding 570,000 hectares of farmland and thousands of villages. The is much controversy over the dam but the most noticeable is now the area never sees the sun as it is always misty. It has also caused pollution, accumulation of silt and there are still questions about the structures stability.

Tonight our ship traveled through the five locks which takes about three hours. Exciting to watch the first one. Still amazed by the second one. Ready for bed by the third. Today when we went to the dam it did not give you the perspective of really how big it is until you go through the locks.

 

Fitbit steps today 17,671, 11.75km