Blogs from Three Gorges Dam, Hubei, China, Asia - page 3

We had a long weekend at the beginning of May for Labor Day. We decided to go on another “family vacation” to get out of Wuhan and see another part of China. The final verdict was to go check out the Three Gorges Dam. For those of you unfamiliar with the Three Gorges project, I’ll give a brief introduction. The dam itself is one of China’s most expansive (and expensive) undertakings. Located in YiChang, along the Yangtze River, the dam is set to become the world’s largest hydro-electric power station. Construction began in December of 1994 and it is not expected to be fully operational until 2011. While there are many benefits to the dam, such as flood control and clean power, it has also been a controversial project because the flooding of the reservoir has ... read more

Well, we spent the night in Yichang after our cruise up the Yangtze, but it was fairly uneventful and not that interesting...until we left Yichang on a sleeper bus to Xi'an. First, we get on and think it may be a pretty good deal since it's not too crowded and we each get a nifty little lounge type seat/bed (bedding included). The timing was better than the train as well so it seemed like a no brainer. Okay, that's where the good stuff stopped... I should mention that the "lounge seats" we were in were just barely long enough for us to stretch our legs out, and obviously this was a worse setup for Trevor with his long legs. This would have been bearable except that our driver felt the need to alternate between flooring it ... read more

The mist and sun are up and the river is smooth. Master Chin led those gathered in a basic tai chi sequence. I finished with some yoga poses facing downstream in the bow of the boat. Breakfast was sumptuous -- as are all the meals (it is a 5-star cruise). Afterwards, we went to the upper deck to look at the Xiling Gorge followed by our entry into the lock system. {This is a bit of a repeat here if you've been keeping up with the blog.} It started to rain and most of us retreated to do whatever one does on a cruise. The shore excursion to the site of the actual dam initiated jokes about the "dam(n) guide" and "the dam(n) driver". I'm not one for engineering sites so I just followed along with ... read more

Its been a while now, and so much has happened!! As i said in my last blog, i have been particularly loking forward to the Yangtse river cruise, as we booked a 4* luxury liner for our 3 day/4 nighter. We actually spent a lot of money on this, and wondered if we should have taken the chinese cruise instead, which basiclly meant spending the time with loads of chinese people, a chinese speaking guide and probably a lot of hastle. We wanted to spoil ourselves a little, and we had never been on a cruise of any sort before. Our bus picked us up at 0630, and took us to a bigger bus, packed full of..............chinese!!! We were shocked at first, and wondered if we had been taken to the correct bus. We continued on ... read more

The Yangtze River journey down stream from Chongqing to Yichang was an experience! Our home for 3 nights, was what we nick named 'Rusty Old Bucket'. A boat full of Chinese tourists competing for the best view and boasting with enthusiasm to go on all the tours available. Every morning we were woken by tour girls knocking on all the cabin doors at 5:30am, followed by loud speaker instructions and music blaring in the corridors, so others could get up and visit a temple or some other tourist attraction. Having already traveled across China, we didn't feel the need to participate in such activities! The Yangtze River trip was a picturesque way to travel. Our first day on board was spent on deck watching the scenery go by. Spotting white markers along the river banks, indicating ... read more