Three Gorges

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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 passes through these locks—way ahead of the estimated time it would take. The best news? Use of the locks is free!



The down side of this project is that 1.4 million people were re-located because the increased river level meant that their homes would be flooded. It also linvolved 1600 enterprises. We visited a new city built for re-located families. People who were affected were offered three choices: Move higher into the mountains, leave farming and get a job in a factory, or move to another province to continue farming. Many young people simply moved to other provinces. Our bus climbed higher and higher into the mountains to reach the new settlement. The family we visited had moved ten kilometres from their farm in 1999. The farm is now covered by water. They were compensated $1800. (Cdn) for each of the six family members ($10,800. total), because they lost their land. A further $2,500. Cdn for each family member ($15,000 total) to build a new house, plus $13,000 Cdn. to finish the house—fixtures, etc. They got friends with various skills to help them. Moving to a new neighbourhood was hard at the beginning: they left their friends behind. These former farmers also had to find new jobs. The woman we met started a small grocery store on the street level of their home, her husband worked in construction and her son and daughter-in-law got jobs in restaurants. Their two grandchildren—ages seven and eleven go to boarding school and come back on weekends. The house they built has a kitchen along with the store on the main level, a living room and three bedrooms on the second level. A fourth room is set up for games of mah-jong. They have built another storey for more bedrooms. They can build up to six stories.



再见



Donna

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Photos

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The Qutang Gorge. Just beautiful!

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Interesting land formations.

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We spent most of the day on the upper deck of the cruise ship enjoying the scenery.

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That afternoon, we took a ferry to this centre. Organized confusion as they got 12-15 of us in each of those boats.

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These boats are called peapod boats because of the shape. We had only a few inches from the edge to the water. It was rowed by locals.

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This was a history lesson on life along the Yangtze before the 3 Gorges Dam raised the water level. The boatmen would jump out of boats and pull them along with bamboo ropes. Sometimes that meant in the water, other times, on land. Their clothing was so heavy when wet, in the old days, they worked in the buff!

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The 3 Gorges Dam project is an amazing place. To get to the observation centre, we took four very fast escalators. They get 1.8 million visitors a year.

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Standing in front of the actual dam. It is 2.3 km.

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Some of the farmers who were re-located moved their farms higher up the mountains. They were able to build nice homes. Notice the crop production on the terraces.

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This is a re-location city. Many people started new lives.

Comments

[Claire]

Interesting to see what some of the dislocated people are doing. Makes me want to spend time with Google to find out more.

[jenny Murray]

Love reading all the interesting information you post along the way.Fascinating stuff. Looking forward to reading more about your travels.

[John H]

gorges
gorgeous