I didn't do anything in Yichang at all, other than drive from the airport, to a restaurant for dinner, and then to the cruise ship to start my Yangtze River adventure. As always though, I tried to take a few photos from the bus as I was travelling along 'cause no matter how short the stay, it definitely is different from home!
Watermelon anyone?
The first of many, many bridges over the Yangtze River that I'm going to see in the next few days
After dinner we boarded the Victoria Jenna which is going to be my home for the next four nights - and three full days cruising along the Yangtze River.
This was my first sighting of the MV Jenna:
this was the view from my cabin balcony:
and this was my cabin:
The Yangtze River, or Chang Jiang is the longest river in Asia, and the third longest in the world. It flows for 6,418 kilometres from the glaciers near Tibet, eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the biggest rivers by discharge volume in the world. The Yangtze drains one-fifth of the land area of the PRC and its river basin is home to one-third of China's population. Along with the Yellow River, the Yangtze is the most important river in the history, culture and economy of China. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRC's GDP and the Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world.
We spent tonight docked at Yichang and then set sail at 6:30am for my adventure on the Yangtze. My travels are going to take me westward, along about 700 kms of this amazing river, through the Three Gorges Dam and through the Three Gorges area of the river.
And this is what I woke up to in the morning as we were sailing along the Yangtze River:
Our voyage this morning wasn't very long actually - we only went a few kilometres to Sandouping which is the nearest community to the Three Gorges Dam
The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping. The Three Gorges Dam is the world's largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW) and last year it actually generated as much electricity as the Itaipu Dam.
They are still building a ship lift - literally a giant elevator for ships that will significantly decrease the amount of time it takes the big cargo ships to go from the top to the bottom and vice versa - but except for it, the dam itself was completed in 2006 and the entire project is now fully functional.
As well as producing electricity, the dam is intended to increase the Yangtze River's shipping capacity and reduce the potential for floods downstream by providing flood storage space. The Chinese government regards the project as a historic engineering, social and economic success, with the design of state-of-the-art large turbines, and a move toward limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The building of this huge dam was for the purpose of flood control, generation of electricity, navigation, and irrigation. However, as you know, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites, it submerged thousands of acres of farmland, 13 cities, 140 towns, 1,352 villages and caused nearly 1.5 million people to be displaced. It is also now causing significant ecological changes, including an increased risk of landslides. The dam has been a controversial topic both domestically and abroad.
Before I get to the actual dam site though, the place where we docked and went ashore for our excursion was lovely. This little market area is obviously set-up for boat passengers and it's also clearly a popular place for the locals to hang out.
These are the houses that are at the docking site:
And the Huangling Temple:
Looking back at the Victoria Jenna from land:
A short bus ride later and we were at the Three Gorges Dam project. Made of concrete and steel, the dam is 2,335 m long and the top of the dam is 185 metres above sea level. It is 18 metres wide on the top and 130 metres wide at the bottom. The project used 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete (mainly for the dam wall), 463,000 tonnes of steel (enough to build 63 Eiffel Towers) and moved about 102.6 million cubic metres of earth. When the water level is at its maximum of 175 metres above sea level (and we often saw signs along the riverbank indicating where the water goes up to when it is at this height - 175 metres), which is 110 metres higher than the river level downstream, the dam reservoir is on average about 660 kilometres in length and 1.12 kilometres in width. It contains 39.3 km3 of water and has a total surface area of 1,045 square kilometres. On completion, the reservoir flooded a total area of 632 square kilometres of land (as compared to the 1,350 square kilometres of reservoir created by the Itaipu Dam).
Any way you look at it, this thing is BIG!
The installation of ship locks has increased river shipping from ten million to 100 million tonnes annually. Shipping has become much safer, as the gorges were notoriously dangerous to navigate.
There are two series of ship locks installed near the dam - each of them is made up of five stages, with transit time at around four hours. Maximum vessel size is 10,000 tons. The locks are 280 m long, 35 m wide, and 5 m deep - so they are 30 m longer than those on the St. Lawrence Seaway, but half as deep. These locks are staircase locks, whereby inner lock gate pairs serve as both the upper gate and lower gate. As there are separate sets of locks for upstream and downstream traffic, this system is more water efficient than bi-directional staircase locks.
In addition to the canal locks, a ship life, a kind of elevator for vessels, is under construction. The ship lift is designed to be capable of lifting ships of up to 3,000 tons. The ship lift, when completed, will take 30 to 40 minutes to transit, as opposed to the four hours needed for stepping through the locks. One complicating factor is that the water level can vary dramatically. The ship lift must work even if water levels vary by 12 meters on the lower side, and 30 metres on the upper side. It is reported now that the ship lift will be completed and operating by 2015.
I found this to be helpful in terms of putting things into perspective. It's a scale model of the Three Gorges Dam project. The bigger channel on the left is the actual dam and the channel on the right are the ship locks.
The green area in between is where I was standing looking down on the entire project. The mountain in the middle of this green space is known as Tanziling Ridge - and with an elevation of 262.5 m it does command beautiful, panoramic views of the entire Three Gorges project.
This monument has been built at the top of Tanziling Ridge. The relief sculpture has people and water as its theme, and the concrete pyramid symbolizes the difficulties and dangers of damming the river.
Not surprisingly, there was a very definite army presence here --- everywhere!
Our shore excursion this afternoon was to a little folk village which has been set up to depict the living conditions and working crafts of the native people who live along this part of the Yangtze River. Although this setting has been specifically set up as a tourist destination, and we're not wandering through an actual village, it is local villagers who work here, the location is entirely built using the natural landscape and I think the cultural representations were as 'real' as they could make them. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit!
It's been a while since I included a photo with me in it - just to "prove" to you that I really am where I say I am
This is "Love Eagle Waterfall" and there is a beautiful folk tale that goes along with it. (I won't type it all out for you here, but if you're interested you can always ask.)
And seeing these monkeys while we were in the tribal village was an added bonus.
Getting to and from the tribal village was a bit of an experience... they certainly didn't waste any space with shoulders by the side of the road!
Back on the ship and we left where we were docked at Sandouping as it was now our turn to go through the Three Gorges locks. Several ships were in front of us so we got to watch them being loaded into the first step of the locks (remember there are five to go through).
And the doors closed behind them
We were the first one in, right up at the front
No room for error here!
And then we were through the first lock, with four more still to go. Because of our timing is was unfortunately dark by the time we got through all the locks so I don't have any photos of us emerging at the top.
And the doors open into the second of five
The show this evening was entitled the "Chinese Dynasties Show" - during which the crew modelled a variety of Chinese traditional costumes and performed some folk dances. Given that the performers are also the ship's crew (and not professionals), the quality of the performance was excellent!
Off to bed now, after a thoroughly enjoyable first day on the Yangtze.
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