These are a few shots taken after we cleared the Three Gorges Dam. Shots of the dam are a bit later on.

We did two side trips on our cruise. The first was to a tacky “ghost town” (a few shots later) on the first day. The second afternoon, we spent several hours on first a smaller motorized boat cruising up an ever-narrowing side stream, then on “peapod boats” (so named because of their shape) being first rowed, then pulled, up an ever-shallower stream surrounded by beautiful moody hills.

Steve and I shared a boat with a really GREAT group of Australian tourists and our boat was by far the most interesting one — we sang “Drunken Sailor” and “Waltzing Matilda” to entertain our captain, tour guide, and paddlers as we were rowed upstream, and generally had quite a good time. Steve had time, afterwards, to speak with the oldest member of the group and to learn that for him, this day was literally the realization of a lifelong dream. He is a WWII veteran, and after the loss of his wife a few years ago he decided he’d finally travel the world and see things he’s always dreamed of seeing. This was his first trip, and being pulled upstream by the trackers (you can see them in one of these shots) is something he’s dreamed about since he read a book about boat traffic, and foot trackers, on the Yangtze and its tributaries as a child in Australia, during the teens or twenties.

Indeed, Steve and I found the Shennong Stream trip — aside from our pleasure in the company; those back home should ask Steve about his talent show performance of Waltzing Matilda with the group that evening — both beautiful and very interesting. The peapod boats were until recently used exclusively for work and transport of goods; these days they’re just about exclusively used for tourists coming off the big cruise ships. It seems clear that Three Gorges tourism is an important part of the economic picture of many of these towns.

This shot is on its own since you can see how high the water level will ultimately be: the white sign on the hill shows the ultimate water level. The river has already risen most of the way it will rise — a woman from Australia who leads tour groups told us she noticed a real difference from her last trip, last year. But it’s all still quite impressive and beautiful, as I hope you agree. Shennong is in between the second gorge and the beginning of the third gorge…I think…Steve will comment if I’m wrong, since I’m pretty sure he’s got the map at home with him :-). In any case, we were getting pretty close to where the dam is now in operation, but going up Shennong Stream we were also going back uphill basically.

Sorry for the fuzziness of these two shots, but they’re the best I could get. The ill-lit nighttime one shows is taken from our boat, showing all the other boats being shoe- horned into the second (of five) locks of the Three Gorges Dam, at around midnight on the last night of our cruise. Many of us stayed on deck the whole time to watch the process. It’s amazing. It’s now three weeks later, and I didn’t take notes, but if I recall, each lock raises or lowers ships about 22 meters or so, and they’re one after another. Right now, the first lock is not yet functional since the water level has not risen above the level of the second lock yet. Anyway — it was intensely cool, though in an industrial sort of way, not in the beautiful nature of the gorges sort of way. The really fuzzy shot is from the bus after we’d toured the Dam and learned more about it. It shows the step-like progression of the five locks, from outside and downstream.

One has mixed emotions about the dam: having lived through power outages all summer in Nanning, I know China’s need for more power. I also know Americans (and many others) are in no position to criticize China very effectively since we dammed many of our greatest and most beautiful rivers and natural areas (Glen Canyon, anyone) thirty and more years ago. (Quite aside from how greedily Americans consume energy of all origins.) And indeed, the Gorges are still quite awe-inspiring and beautiful as they are — even in the mist — as you’ve seen. Yet how much more awe-inspiring would they be, if they were another 120 meters or so taller than they are now?

The dam itself falls roughly 1/3 of the way into the third gorge, heading downstream. This means the water through the last part of the third gorge is lower, and the height of the cliffs is a bit more dramatic. But, whether due to the dam construction or the relative proximity to a major city (Yichang, where we ended), there are generally more towns and houses through this part than through the other two gorges we went through. Also, perhaps, by that point we knew the trip was nearly over and were ready for our next destination?

On the first day of our cruise, Steve and I were reminded that tourist traps are neither a purely modern invention, nor restricted to the Ozarks. 🙂 One of these shots is just our boat, taken from high up on the hill where most of the “Ghost Town” is located. Since we had a great time on it, I wanted to commemorate it.

The other shot shows a freaky set of buildings in the shape of a head and sort of arm-like things. It is WAY freaky in reality, and basically it’s one big tacky contraption to get the cruise ships to stop here, and stop they do! For a few hundred years, or perhaps more, locals have been saying there are ghosts and spirits and stuff here. There are a few Republican-era (1911-1949) buildings and temples of moderate (extremely moderate, by comparison with the sites Steve had already seen here in Beijing and that I can see any time I want) interest and taste, and then quite a lot of really tacky and weird stuff. We enjoyed our visit, though. Oh, and I’ll never forget trying to take my nap as our boat purred its way downriver, when Steve said “Ohmigod, Paul, you have GOT to see this.” It was for the scary/tacky white thing on the hill.

The town that’s attached to this particular tourist trap has been moved uphill twice now — once when the first dam went in during the 70s (?), and again now. Steve thought, as we sat at the bottom of the hill waiting for our group to catch up (I’d pulled us off on our own to view things without the flag-bearing guide because I wanted to see things at my own pace), that I should get a shot of the construction still underway to rebuilt the city in its new location. There’s also construction ongoing for other, new tourist delights to keep folks coming to this area even after the water level has reached its final height. Just think what you’re missing!

Naturally we had to take shots of ourselves at the dam. It’s quite a massive project. I find, from a dramatic standpoint, the Hoover Dam a bit more breathtaking because it’s so tall and architecturally visible. But this dam is a great deal bigger, and of course holding back a whole lot more water.

I forgot to post these photos with the group of shots that appear later, from the hikes Steve and I took in the mountains to the north of Beijing. They’re sort of “miscellany” from his last weekend here, when we spent a lovely day at the Summer Palace. My hope is that Steve remembers some of the beauty of the grounds and buildings there, as much as or more than he remembers the dreadful pollution of the day! Those who’ve been watching my blog know how much I love the details and and paintings on roofs and ceilings of many traditional Chinese buildings — hope you enjoy the ceiling-painting shot as much as I do.

Our cruise of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River departed from Chongqing, on Wednesday morning though we were welcome to board Tuesday evening. (Which we did — why pay for a hotel room when you can sleep on a cool ship with a different view of the city?!) Since we arrived in Chongqing Monday morning and had the afternoon to the see the city (a few shots below), we had the full day Tuesday to see what else the region had to offer. I determined by far the most interesting thing for Steve would be the ancient Buddhist caves in Dazu County, an area about 2 or 3 hours outside Chongqing city by bus. So off we set with a Chinese-language tour group I’d arranged through our hotel desk.

These and the shots that follow show you some of the highlights of what we saw. It’s truly remarkable. Though I’ve not yet been to the most-renowned caves at Datong and Dunhuang, one guide said these are almost at that level of historical and artistic importance. I guess I’ll see when I finally make it to them, but Steve and I were both quite inspired and awestruck by the beauty and grace of the art here. Since the giant reclining Buddha is one of the highlights — of many highlights, really — of the area we looked at, I’m leading off with some shots of him. Steve: by the way, I read in another history book over the weekend that the two destroyed at Bamiyan were something like 55 and 30-something meters high. So perhaps you could check your source that said they were well over 100 meters high? If indeed they were 55 and 30-something, then I think this guy, as well as the Boddhisatvas, must be getting into that range, don’t you? In any case, I hope you all enjoy these views!