Blogs from Yangtze River, China, Asia

Hello everyone, The Three Gorges Dam project was the largest construction project in the world. More of the Yangtze was made navigable between key centres. The increased water height also made it safer for ships to pass between the gorges. The project took seventeen years and cost 27 billion US. The damn is 2.3 kilometres long. There are 32 turbine generators. The electric produced is 100 billion kilowatt hours per year. This made electricity available to many more Chinese. The sale of electricity helps recoup costs. The project now employs 30,000 people during peak season. The locks are really impressive—five locks total a 113 metre drop. They need five to accommodate the pressure. It takes four hours to get through all five locks. 180 vessels a day use it. Each year 100 million ton of cargo ... read more

And so to the impressive gorge sections of our Yangtze River Cruise. First to wow us is the Quatang Gorge, its huge towering mountains enveloping us on both sides in all their majesty. Massive folds of rock cascading down to the water's edge, a white stripe indicating the levels the water rises to in the winter months. Rock beautifully drizzled with vegetation clinging to its folds, lush and green against light brown. In the gorge we are suddenly dwarfed, our previously large boat now a tiny spec floating on the water as if nothing but dust. Massive grins and sighs from Lottie Let Loose, in her favoured natural environment. But even here man has made his mark with massive red lettering carved into the rocks 'Kuimen stands powerfully and sails pass trippingly' it proclaims. Personally I ... read more

At 6.20am we are rudely awoken by an intercom announcement first in Chinese repeated three times and then in English also repeated three times! It's telling us we have to be at breakfast by half six, so bleary eyed we stumble about in our cabin getting dressed and zombie-like make our way up to the restaurant to sit with our fellow travellers on another Geckos tour. They are also a group of 5 - two older couples from Australia and a young girl from the UK who doesn't like Chinese food so won't be joining us for meals. I think she has just been eating crisps and biscuits the whole time! After stuffing our faces we get ready to go off on our shore excursion to the Ghost City starting at 7.30am! I'm really not used ... read more

Day 17 We woke up after our first nights sleep on the boat to chinese music being belted out of the cabin radios at 6.30am! After dozing to the tunes for a while we got up and went on deck to check out our surroundings. At around 10.30am, we sailed through the first of the gorges called the Qutang Gorge. It was raining and very windy and in honesty we both felt a little unimpressed by the scenery particularly because it was so hazy with limited views. After lunch we transferred to a smaller boat and set off through the "Lesser Three Gorges". The weather had improved by then and the sun was shining and the scenery here seemed more impressive than that seen in the morning. As we sailed through the high rock formations that ... read more