We have wake up music at 6:15 am! We enter the
Xiling Gorge at 6:30 am. This is the first of the three gorges. It is the deepest and longest at 41 miles. I'm surprised that the river is so muddy brown looking. But at times I see a yellow tint to it. We pass other boats. There's a fine mist hanging. We also sail past buildings on shore. Breakfast buffet starts at 7:30 am. A full day schedule.
Per our copy of the Yangtze Angel newsletter we are scheduled to arrive at
Sandouping at 8:30 am. It's located in the middle of Xiling Gorge. Here we leave the ship for a shore excursion of the
Three Gorges Dam site. We gather in the lobby, leave our cabin keys, get our boarding pass for getting back on the ship, and meet our guide Herbert. There are bottles of water for sale at 5 yuan each.
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| Schedule first full day |
This is the site of modern China's most ambitious engineering project-the construction of the Three Gorges Dam and its hydroelectric power plant. We will view the current phase of this 17 year project. When completed in 2009, the dam will be 610' high and over a mile wide. The hydroelectric power plant will be driven by the world's largest turbines and have the generating capacity of 18 nuclear power plants. A reservoir 372 miles long will be created with the end result displacing 1.5 million people, submerging thousands of their towns and villages and wiping out numerous archaeological sites. Whole cities have been relocated, precious topsoil brought to higher elevations and centuries old lifestyles altered forever. After touring this amazing site we board the ship.
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| Ticket for the Three Gorges Dam project |
Now our ship will transit the
5 stage ship lock and will again enter the
Xiling Gorge-first of the magnificent Three Gorges. The Yangtze forces its way through a spectacular barrier of solid limestone ridges known as the Three Gorges. It takes around 4 hours to get through the 5 stage ship lock. First we will enter the ship chamber from the lower gate, that gate is closed, and the ship chamber ascends through a climbing device. When the water level in the ship chamber is the same as that of the upper part of the reservoir the upper gate is opened and the ship can then sail into the upper bay. There is a ship lift which is not currently working. When fixed it will be much faster than the ship lock.
Tonight at dinner we have the
Captain's welcome cocktail party. There is champagne, Chinese cookies, and appetizers. Dinner is buffet style.
After dinner there is a fashion show which show cases costumes from the different regions and time periods, traditional Chinese folk songs and dances. The ballroom will be open until midnight but Richard and I stay only for a little while as we're tired.
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