Celebrating Easter in China or Downpour at that Damn Three Gorges Dam

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Easter Sunday began for us on the Yangtze River with the first glimpse of the sun we’d had all week. We went up to the fifth deck Lounge to see if we could connect to the ship’s Wi-Fi because the connection in our room this morning was spotty. We also decided not to do the Tai Chi class this morning. Sharon was able to upload yesterday’s blog as well as some pictures.

We went to breakfast and ended up joining a table that filled up with travelers from Canada. At 9 am we went to a lecture by Bob on the Three Gorges Dam which we will be visiting this afternoon. This dam is the world’s largest generator of electricity by a renewable source. The need for this dam has been recognized for about a century, but it didn’t open until 2008. There were three compelling reasons for this project: control flooding, generate significant portion of China’s electricity, and improve navigation on the Yangtze River. Currently, 28 of the planned 32 generators are in operation. Projected to provide close to 50%!o(MISSING)f China’s electric needs, today it produces about 17%!o(MISSING)f China’s fast growing power needs. The final four generators should be put online in the near future. For security concerns visitors are not permitted inside the dam. Visitors were once allowed to get close-up views of the water shoots funneling water down the face of the dam. Bob noted, that after losing two visitors, this is no longer permitted.

The three gorges are Qutang Gorge, Wu Gorge and Xiling Gorge. There was some controversy regarding the development of the dam. These centered on the displacement of 1.4 million people living in the many cities, towns and villages that lost to construction of the dam and the resulting reservoir. Other concerns were the loss of history and many archeological sites, the possibility of earthquakes and landslides, and the danger posed from such a possible military target. Bob noted that if the dam was destroyed, it had the potential to wipe out half of China. Bob asked the cruisers to please not go home and tell Putin and Obama of this prime target. The dam is built to withstand a 7.0 magnitude earthquake; but, unfortunately it is also built on an active earthquake fault. Sediment is a huge problem facing the dam. Its design allows the silt to pass through the dam without threatening to build up behind the dam or damaging the turbines generating the electricity. Here on the Yangtze as we approach the Three Gorges the river is very wide in many places; although, the depth may be just 5 meters. The draft of the Viking Emerald is 2.5 meters.

After the lecture we went up to the Deck 6 Lounge for an impromptu non-denominational Easter service. The meeting was organized by a lady from Canada who asked her tour guide if she could do something for Easter, and was told “Absolutely. In fact, one Easter in the past, a priest was on board and they did an Easter mass!” She explained how she was feeling guilty, and felt she should do something to commemorate Easter. She introduced herself as an Irish Catholic woman, and you can’t get much more guilt-ridden than that. The meeting lasted about twenty-five minutes, and included a couple of readings, the singing of a hymn, and The Lord’s Prayer (a partly Catholic and partly Protestant version anyway) and a reading from a children’s book describing the first Easter from the eyes of an Ethiopian boy who was visiting Jerusalem at the time. The meeting concluded when she offered everyone chocolates from a box someone gave her a couple of weeks ago. She said she’s a confirmed chocoholic and she gives up chocolate for Lent. The piece she took was the first chocolate she’s had in seven weeks.

Lunch was similar to yesterday, and Sharon headed right for the fresh bread basket and filled her plate with several slices of the delicious fresh French bread. I started with a nice salad from their well-stocked salad bar. We both opted for the BBQ pork ribs, which had plenty of meat and a tasty sweet sauce. Sharon got hers without extra sauce; rather, she ordered hers without sauce so only got the sauce they were actually cooked in.

We took the camera, laptop and some warmer layers up to the sixth deck Lounge where the fog was now started to impact the view. We were scheduled to arrive at the first lock at about 1pm; but, we actually got there at about 2:30pm. The Gezhouba Dam is what Bob referred to as the “practice dam” that was built before the Three Gorges Dam. As we squeezed into the lower lock people were commenting how narrow the lock was with barely enough room for us to slip into. It took just three minutes for the gates to close behind us and we quickly began to rise within the lock. Within ten minutes we were on our way again but 20 meters higher than before. We went back to the cabin and got our rain jackets (an umbrella would have been nice, but we were mainly adding a layer for warmth). We disembarked, but were running about 30 minutes behind schedule. We just followed the crowd ahead of us, which is funny, because just that morning in the cabin we’d seen parts of Brain Games on the Discovery Channel, with intermittent blackouts due to interference with the satellite signal. The show showed how people will mindlessly wait in line behind others for something they don’t know about if others are waiting in the line, and they will follow others and do crazy things if those in front of them are doing these things as well, so it only takes one shill to establish this bizarre behavior because people like to belong to groups. With no tour guides or their extension pointers sticking tall in the air with a Viking Tour Guide flag waving above, we really don’t know who we’re following; but, Sharon said to follow them anyway. Did she see the same show I saw? We marched right through a tourist trap alley where everyone was confronted with persistent sales people offering the deal of a lifetime and trying to get us to commit to “maybe later” which we luckily didn’t. We eventually arrived at the busses on the far side, and Arnold was indeed waiting for us there.

The bus took us quickly to the security checkpoint for entry into the Three Gorges Dam compound. They made us get off the bus, taking all of our belongings with us, and go through a security checkpoint. They appear to be looking for weapons or alcohol, both items specifically banned from the area. The bus goes through a separate inspection, and on the other side of the building we all piled back into the bus. We were then transported to the top of the dam and lock complex. Arnold told us to take our umbrellas with us as we exited the bus for the tour, as in just a few minutes the weather had turned and rain had started to come down pretty steady. The fog was also fairly heavy and it was impossible to see the far side of the dam some 1.4 miles away. We took a series of escalators to a point overlooking the dam and locks. Nearest to us was the lift still under construction, capable of lifting 15,000 tons that will allow expedited service (for a fee) to get ships through the locks in one vertical lift. The lift would raise a container that holds water and a vessel, and then gates would open and close just like a lock. This service will not be able to handle a ship the size of the Viking Emerald, but it would allow ships to reduce the normal four hours it takes to move through all five locks to about thirty minutes when it is completed in 2015. On the other hand, there is no charge to go through the locks. There was a visitor’s center that had an indoor model of the dam. As you look at the dam from below, to the right are the channels for the downstream and upstream locks. To the left of these is the channel for the lift under construction. And to the left of these is the long straight dam with the center sluice section for dealing with the silt. On either side of the sluice are twelve generators to the left and fourteen generators to the right; and to the left of all of these are the six recently completed generators. Bob’s lecture from this morning needs to be updated to show that all 32 generators are now operational. But only in the months from April through August is there enough water in the reservoir to power all 32 generators at the same time. It was mentioned that this dam can provide about 17%!o(MISSING)f China’s electricity needs today. Plans are in the works to build additional dams upstream from the Three Gorges Dams, in hopes that this will greatly reduce China’s dependence on coal burning generators that are blamed for much of the pollution in industrial urban centers. While on the Yangtze we saw numerous barges laden with coal.

At our final stop on the downhill walking tour in the downpour, we could see the reservoir level and see that it was 30 meters below this season’s high water mark just a month earlier. The fog and mist were still heavy and with the limited visibility we still could not see the far side of the dam.

We returned to the ship just in time for the rescheduled start of dinner at 7pm. In the center of every table was a holiday treat of 3 chocolate Easter Eggs, 2 white chocolate Easter eggs and 3 white chocolate bunny rabbits, each sitting atop their own cookie. They are starting to serve back to back meals that Sharon likes, this time a tri-tip-like cut of beef with a gravy and some strange potatoes. I chose the halibut, and it was a really thin cut of halibut; but, still very tasty. I tried but didn’t really care for the eggplant they served with it. And prior to the entrée I had Sharon order the roast duck appetizer for me, while I ordered the prawns in balsamic vinegar. Both were excellent. We both chose the brownie with ice cream for dessert. I had specifically asked for vanilla ice cream; which, is what I got. Sharon had also said vanilla ice cream, but her inflection was obviously wrong and she wound up with rum raisin ice cream… I traded with her; but, I thought she’d gotten black walnut ice cream (big mistake). I rotated the Lazy-Susan trying to encourage someone to take one of the Easter treats, but nobody would take one first, not even Sharon. Then the servers brought out an anniversary cake for one of the couples at our table (it was their 40^th). It was funny because they both though their spouse had ordered the cake, and he felt sheepish because he hadn’t and didn’t know how to tell his wife. Then someone came over that they’d befriended on the cruise who’d actually ordered the cake and wished them a Happy 40^th Anniversary. When the guy asked “How did you know?” The other guy said “That’s all you two have been talking about all week!” The cake was very good, and no one had room for the Easter treats after that. Still, it was a nice gesture by Viking Cruises.



To wrap up a pretty busy day on board the ship we went to the rescheduled game of Bingo at 9pm. All that I will say is that Viking Cruises needs to work on their Bingo calling and their Bingo Rules. They played by “Chinese Rules”, which essentially means that you get three cards for $10. The first game prize is a personalized stamp. The second game prize is a Chinese tea set. The third game prize is a massage in the Health salon. With the Chinese rules you can play any card on any game, in fact, you can play all three cards on just one game if that is what you want to do. Many people held out not playing in the first two games. But he calls the numbers very fast, and in a heavy Chinese accent, and there is no overhead display of the numbers called! If you miss a number, that’s too bad. But worst of all… there was no requirement for having the last number called as part of the solution. There was more than one multiple winner who had actually gotten their Bingo several calls earlier. As the Aussies would say… “No worries, mate!”

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