Shanghai'd

Three Gorges.

This past Thursday we flew up to Chongqing, a massive Chinese municipality of 30+ million people, to meet up with our friends Jay & Michelle and Kim & Steve. Both couples are coincidentally traveling in China at the same time and we thought it would be fun to all meet up, get on a cruise liner and sail 430 km down the Yangtze River to the world's largest dam, San Xia Da Ba. The Yangzte is the main artery of mainland China, and the star of our previous post, hu tiao xia. It provides water for crops and after the completion of the dam will provide hydroelectricity to developing coastal Chinese cities. (Anyone who has seen the lights of Shanghai knows that the electricity is being well used).

Rising water level
Of course this comes at a small cost. The dam will eventually raise the water level of the surrounding valley an additional 80 meters, creating hundreds of mini-Pompeii villages and displacing over a million people. Not to mention the catastrophic environmental and ecological impact, but hey, progress has its price. Numerous signs along the river indicate the current water level (140 m above sea level) and the final water level (175 m above sea level) when the resevoir is 100% full in 2009. Anyone currently living below the 175 m mark - an estimated 1.2 million - had better start making plans. Click on this picture to see a better view of the 175 m mark:


The Chinese government generously provides 50,000RMB (about $6,000) per family to relocate. Many are building a little higher. Others are moving to a coastal city. According to all our tour guides, everyone is very happy about this arrangement.

Snow Mountain
Our vessel, Snow Mountain, a 4-star ship was at capacity with 101 guests and 99 staff. Pretty good ratio, and it showed. The food was well prepared, drink preferences remembered and inevitably a girl named icecream, kaluha or baileys to point out every step and change in flooring. The guests were Chinese, German and the 'English-speaking' group which included us, an old Dutch man with his Chinese wife and child, a sea-faring shiver-me-timbers bearded Scotsman and a fair share of octogenarian or obese Americans. In fact, the average age of the English speakers was probably about 60, brought down considerably by one recent high school grad who had unknowingly joined the walker tour. Poor thing. The English speaking group was to be continuously and fearlessly led by our Chinese guide, monikered 'Tom Cruise' (river guide). Get it? By the way, ladies, Tom Cruise (river guide) is still available. Most rooms had 2 twin beds and a bathroom, but Kim and Steve upgraded to the 'presidential suite'. A massive corner of the boat as big as 4 normal rooms complete with lounge room, bar, minifridge and king sized bed. This quickly became the group's party lounge. After the obligatory dam-tour/dam-tourists/dam-tour guide jokes and a quick safety briefing which resulted in questions from the octogenarians such as "how do we answer the phone?", and "how do you remove the stopper from the sink?", we were off.

Gorge #1
Before this trip, I mistakenly thought the name '3 Gorges' came from the fact that 3 rivers met into one. In reality, it is all one river, the Yangtze, which cuts through 3 gorges in route from Chongqing to Yichang. The first gorge is immortalized on the back of the 10 yuan note.




Trackers
After the unremarkable second gorge, we switched from Snow Mountain to a smaller ferry where we went through some small side gorges. When we reached a small village (recently rebuilt due to the raising waters) we climbed aboard narrow sampan 'pea-pod' boats outfitted with 6 strapping "trackers". When the upstream river got too tough to paddle, 4 of the trackers jumped out and harnessed themselves to the boat and proceeded to pull all 16 of us through the rapids. These guys were seriously cut due to their chosen profession and looked like marathon runners. Laurel in particular enjoyed checking out their sculpted booties. These guys used to track in the buff before the advent of comfortable water resistant clothes like underoos and 70s style running shorts.





Souvenirs
Try as you may, you can never escape the souvenirs hawkers. Not even a sampan boat in the middle of some rapids is safe ...



The Dam
Our boat reached the 3 gorges dam at around 10pm and spent the next 4 hrs impressively navigating the 5-step lock system to reach the tailwater side. The final (anticlimactic) day was spent touring the dam site. Though the Chinese government boasted (propagandized?) that construction on the dam was completed last week, the numerous cranes, etc indicated otherwise. Some dam facts:
- 26 turbines (14 currently active)
- 86 billion kWh / yr electricity
- 300+ (reported) worker deaths
- 175 m above sea level final water level (in 2009)
- 1.2 million people relocated
While functionally impressive, it was aesthetically pretty boring in a communist kind of way. Nothing of the drama of Hover dam in the US (as Tim and Kim repeatedly pointed out for the duration of our 'aesthetically disappointing' dam tour).

3 Gorges Dam

Hoover Dam



Reflections
To me, the most amazing thing about the trip was the singular optimism which all the tour guides referred to the project. Everyone was 'very happy' with the dam and it's consequences. The displaced farmers are "very happy because now they can build a newer, better house a little higher up the river bank". The relocated families are "very happy because now they get to live in the city". As for us, we are very happy we got to see the country before it was swallowed up, and that we got to spend such a good weekend with our friends!