April
20, Friday
As we advance through the locks, we can see the next high wall coming up. We aren't the only ones out on their balcony.
Same thing on the other side near the stern.
Looking down into the water, we pass the door that will soon close behind the ship, and bring us down to a lower level.
As we pass the huge door, it seems as if the water is already roaring.
I think that's Jim looking at us from his balcony. We are SO close to that huge cement wall.
I can actually touch it ! Simply amazing. The ship just barely makes it in the locks.
During the night, we pass through the locks at the Three
Gorges Dam and Wendy and I go out on the balcony to take pictures. We only stay awake long enough to see a
second boat move into the lock behind us and then go to bed.
Standing on the balcony of our room on the ship. Wendy is looking at how close that canal wall is to our ship.
As we advance through the locks, we can see the next high wall coming up. We aren't the only ones out on their balcony.
Same thing on the other side near the stern.
Looking down into the water, we pass the door that will soon close behind the ship, and bring us down to a lower level.
As we pass the huge door, it seems as if the water is already roaring.
I think that's Jim looking at us from his balcony. We are SO close to that huge cement wall.
I can actually touch it ! Simply amazing. The ship just barely makes it in the locks.
Our last day on the cruise. Although we do not leave the ship until noon
today, our luggage has to be out of the room by 7 am and our excursion to the
Three Gorges Dam leaves at 8:45, so it is another very early day.
It is also raining today and we are all disappointed by the visit since no one mentioned that we would NOT get to actually visit the dam (not like Hoover Dam). We are simply taken to a building where there is a maquette of the dam, canals and locks.
From the wet bus windows I manage to get a few photos, but they are obviously not the best.
Boats entering (or possibly exiting) one of the locks
A view into the other lock beside it.
It is raining so hard we can't see a thing !
From the lookout, we get a view of the locks that we went through last night.
Looks like two sets up river
and at least one more down river.
So since we didn't get to see the real thing, neither do you. Here are some photos from the display at the information centre
A view of the dam, if we could have seen it !
Maquette display of the dam. View from above the dam
View from below the dam
Looking down the river from the dam
Oh, there is a beautiful bridge somewhere below the locks. Wonder if we will see that today or if we already passed it during the night?
From this angle it looks like there are 5 double locks from the upper to the lower river level
Yep ! 5 double locks. They can pass many ships at once; one set going down river and the other going up.
You get a good view of Zhongbao Island in this view
Close up view of the dam
Map showing the river and the water elevations
Our local guide giving us some information.
Since it is a rainy day visibility is almost nil and although we are on a “look-out point” on top of a cliff, we do not see the Dam at all, only the section where the locks are located. The dam was built on Zhongbao Island and it is an engineering marvel (at least that is what we get from the information centre). “Tanziling Ridge, at an elevation of 262.48 meters commands a panoramic view of the Three Gorges Project.” I guess we’ll have to take their word for it !
That could be the dam down there, but it's almost impossible to tell
A monument they are building on the look-out point
Carrying the building blocks by hand, with a yoke that sits on their necks. No idea how heavy each block is, but they are definitely working hard.
The story of look-out point and the Three Gorges Dam
Back on the bus, we can barely see anything out of the foggy windows covered with rain drops. Plus it is foggy outside as well, but I'm almost certain that we are driving over the dam
Although it is still rainy and foggy, we stay on our balcony and take in the views from this side of the ship.
Some ship yards where they build, repair or possibly dismantle boats.
I must say that these low clouds give the photos a mystic look
Xiling Gorge, with a road that they are building or widening to allow for car traffic
Beautiful vistas
Just before arriving at Yichang Wendy and I spot a beautiful tourist stop with Pagodas and cable cars, but we obviously are not going to be visiting this attraction.Too bad.It appears to be a very popular spot.Could not find any information on the internet about this site, whatever it was.
A monument of some type. I used the zoom on this one but it's all in Chinese. Can any of you read Mandarin ? Can you tell me what it says ?
Views of Yichang.
I know I'm repeating myself but.... check out this architecture. Our architects in Canada need to be a lot more imaginative !
Our flight to Shanghai is very turbulent and the landing is very scary with strong cross winds.
My room at the Okura Garden Hotel
The washrooms have heated toilet seats and built in hot water bidets !
And the view outside the window of my room is spectacular at night. Can't wait to see it in the daylight.
Oh, and those bites I felt on my legs during that cruise on the wooden river boats... Kit tells me they were probably sand flees.
36 bites on one leg, 38 on the other. And it is itching like crazy !
It is also raining today and we are all disappointed by the visit since no one mentioned that we would NOT get to actually visit the dam (not like Hoover Dam). We are simply taken to a building where there is a maquette of the dam, canals and locks.
From the wet bus windows I manage to get a few photos, but they are obviously not the best.
Boats entering (or possibly exiting) one of the locks
A view into the other lock beside it.
It is raining so hard we can't see a thing !
From the lookout, we get a view of the locks that we went through last night.
Looks like two sets up river
and at least one more down river.
So since we didn't get to see the real thing, neither do you. Here are some photos from the display at the information centre
A view of the dam, if we could have seen it !
Maquette display of the dam. View from above the dam
View from below the dam
Looking down the river from the dam
Oh, there is a beautiful bridge somewhere below the locks. Wonder if we will see that today or if we already passed it during the night?
From this angle it looks like there are 5 double locks from the upper to the lower river level
Yep ! 5 double locks. They can pass many ships at once; one set going down river and the other going up.
You get a good view of Zhongbao Island in this view
Close up view of the dam
Map showing the river and the water elevations
Our local guide giving us some information.
Since it is a rainy day visibility is almost nil and although we are on a “look-out point” on top of a cliff, we do not see the Dam at all, only the section where the locks are located. The dam was built on Zhongbao Island and it is an engineering marvel (at least that is what we get from the information centre). “Tanziling Ridge, at an elevation of 262.48 meters commands a panoramic view of the Three Gorges Project.” I guess we’ll have to take their word for it !
“The
construction of the Three Gorges Projected lasted for 17 years, from Dec 14,
1994 to
2009. The planned dynamic
investment of the project was 203.9 Billion Yuan. Thanks to stable prices and strict
management of the project, the total cost was controlled to 180 Billion Yuan.
There were 1.3 million people relocated.
The Three Gorges Dam is a concrete gravity dam which consists of a main
wall, power stations and navigation facilities.
The dam is 2309.47 meters long and 185 meters above sea level. The top
of the dam is 15 meters thick and the bottom is 124 meters thick. The main purpose of the Three Gorges Project
is flood control. The flood control
storage capacity of the project is 22.15 billion cubic meters, which could
raise the flood prevention standard from once every 10 years to once every 100
years at Jingjiang river section. In case of the 1000 years frequency flood,
with the use of the Jingjiang river flood diversion project, the project could
prevent the devastating disasters downstream so that the 15 million people and
1.5 million hectares of arable land will be protected. The Three Gorges
reservoir with 175 meters above the sea level, will improve the 660 kilometers
waterway conditions between Chongqing and Yichang by reducing the
transportation costs by about 1/3 and increasing the annual one-way navigation
capacity from 10 million tons to 50 million tons. 10,000 tonnage barge fleet could go smoothly
between Shanghai and Chongqing. The Three Gorges Project has the largest power
stations in the world with the maximum power generation capacity of 100 billion
kilowatt hour. The total installation
capacity of the project is 22,500 MW including 32 turbine generator units with 700
MW for each and another 2 turbines in the power source station with 50 MW for
each. The Three Gorges Project holds
more than 100 world records. There are 18
achievements awarded with the national science and technology progress award,
200 with provincial scientific and technological progress awards, and over 700
patent applications.”
Photos taken from the look-out point, for what it's worth
A monument they are building on the look-out point
Carrying the building blocks by hand, with a yoke that sits on their necks. No idea how heavy each block is, but they are definitely working hard.
The story of look-out point and the Three Gorges Dam
Back on the bus, we can barely see anything out of the foggy windows covered with rain drops. Plus it is foggy outside as well, but I'm almost certain that we are driving over the dam
Back to the ship for two hours while we cross the most
impressive parts of the lower portions of the Xiling gorge which is
approximately 76 kms long.
Some ship yards where they build, repair or possibly dismantle boats.
I must say that these low clouds give the photos a mystic look
Xiling Gorge, with a road that they are building or widening to allow for car traffic
Beautiful vistas
Just before arriving at Yichang Wendy and I spot a beautiful tourist stop with Pagodas and cable cars, but we obviously are not going to be visiting this attraction.Too bad.It appears to be a very popular spot.Could not find any information on the internet about this site, whatever it was.
A monument of some type. I used the zoom on this one but it's all in Chinese. Can any of you read Mandarin ? Can you tell me what it says ?
The photo without the zoom. Definitely looks like it is a tourist attraction of some type
These are all photos taken close together. They could be placed side by side to show the entire bank of this part of the river and whatever tourist site this is.
It looks like the visitors are entering some type of cave in the cliff
And just around the bend in the river we spy some cable cars going up the mountain to a high pagoda
We arrive in Yichang. The end of our Yangtze River cruise !
We eat lunch on the ship and get ready to disembark at Yichang where we will be taken by bus to the airport for our flight to Shanghai.
Our local guide is called Wendy and she had planned on taking us to a local restaurant for lunch. OOPS we have already had lunch ! In very short order, she makes arrangements to take us to a local spa for a foot massage instead. What a treat! Everyone has a good laugh as we are given a neck massage while our feet soak in extremely hot water in which mysterious herbs have been added. Not only do we then get a foot massage, but our legs are done as well. The massage was actually painful for me when she dug her thumbs into my high foot arches. At the end, they use cups suctioned on the soles of our feet. I seem to be the only one who is in pain when they do this, so the cups are immediately removed from my feet. I think my very high arches have a lot to do with this; most Chinese have flat feet !
These are all photos taken close together. They could be placed side by side to show the entire bank of this part of the river and whatever tourist site this is.
It looks like the visitors are entering some type of cave in the cliff
And just around the bend in the river we spy some cable cars going up the mountain to a high pagoda
We arrive in Yichang. The end of our Yangtze River cruise !
We eat lunch on the ship and get ready to disembark at Yichang where we will be taken by bus to the airport for our flight to Shanghai.
Views of Yichang.
I know I'm repeating myself but.... check out this architecture. Our architects in Canada need to be a lot more imaginative !
Our flight to Shanghai is very turbulent and the landing is very scary with strong cross winds.
During our drive to the hotel, our local guide “John” informs us that we will save about 40 minutes driving time if we stop for dinner first and then head to the hotel. No objections by anyone. Another big meal.
Our hotel in Shanghai is the Okura Garden Hotel, another 5-star establishment. 
My room at the Okura Garden Hotel
The washrooms have heated toilet seats and built in hot water bidets !
And the view outside the window of my room is spectacular at night. Can't wait to see it in the daylight.
Oh, and those bites I felt on my legs during that cruise on the wooden river boats... Kit tells me they were probably sand flees.
36 bites on one leg, 38 on the other. And it is itching like crazy !
It is nice to be able to relax a little before going to sleep. Plus I have access to the Internet again to send emails to my family.
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