Qutang Xia, the first and the shortest of the Three Gorges. Traffic on the river was heavy going up and down, see photos below on this page. Click to see a large image.
Another huge bridge going up, one of many we've seen. If you click to see the large image, you will see a couple of people crossing, some 600 feet up on the temporary walkway under the heavy-duty cables. Bottom left, the red arch is rising that will support the span.
Here we are in Wushan, yet another city that has been moved up the hill to escape being flooded. Our local guide said his family was relocated from one small apartment to three large ones ... they are very happy with the Three Gorges Dam. When in China, do as the Chinese, wave the flag ... Click to see a larger image.
As water levels rise behind the huge Three Gorges Dam, for several hundred miles, houses and entire towns have been demolished and flooded and moved to higher ground. Here, flooded houses in the foreground and people slowly taking everything from the house behind, which will be flooded soon. Click to see a larger image.
People are taking everything from their houses, to reuse further up the hill, roofing tiles, beams, bricks, anything that cane be re-used. Houses without rooftops will be flooded. Maybe that those behind feel they are safe, or just have not started demolition yet. Click to see a large image.
Large towns and cities have been relocated by the government, and people we met are very happy with the much larger, modern apartments they got in exchange. But in the small villages, it seems people have to take their houses apart for any re-usable materials they can carry to higher ground. Click for a large image.
"175" signs are up and down the river. That's how high water will go when the dam is totally filled, meaning 175 meters above sea level. Until recently, it was at 150-155 meters, but both for the rainy season and because of fears over the earthquake further up river, which could release water from upstream dams, if they broke, they lowered the lever to 145 meters. Click to see a large image.
Because the level was dropped to 145 meters above sea level, all our photos show a band by the river that was under water until just recently. But, if all goes according to plan, it will eventually reach 175 meters (sign close to the top of this hill), meaning that this large peninsula will instead become a small island with just the house and small corn field near the top. Click for a large image.
Wu Xia, the second of the Three Gorges, about 45 km long. You can see the band by the river where some 10 meters of water has recently been let out of the dam, so now the level is 145 meters above sea level, but eventually it will go to 175. Everybody talks about "175" all the time. Click to see a larger image.
Our ship-hotel moving down river through Wu Xia, the second of the Three Gorges. Here is a brand new motorway bridge. The town on the right has already been moved up the hill. Click to see a larger image.
The rock shown high above the gorge is the Goddess, in the shape of a girl, famous in Chinese history, looking down on ships passing by, like Lorelei on the Rhine. When Mao proposed building a big dam, he must have been past it already, and he wrote his proposal as a poem, in which the Goddess would look down upon a tamed river. In those days, whatever Mao wanted, had to be done. So Zhou Enlai said, OK, he wants a dam, but let's build a small test dam, lower downstream, so that we can learn how, one day, to build the dam he really wants. By now, they have finished the dam that Mao wanted then and the Goddess is still looking down. The dam, of course, killed the other goddess, the Yangtze dolphin. In the 1950's, there still were 6,000 in the river, but none have been seen since about 2005. Click to see a larger image.
Here we are going down the long Wu Xia gorger, along with a lot of traffic passing up and down. Click to see a large image.
There are temples of every kind on the hill. This one was guarded by a couple of lions. Click for a large image.
This is how that microwave gets to your local Wal-Mart, down the Yangtze on boat full of fully loaded trucks, down to Shanghai, some already hauling containers that then go on ocean going ships. Click to see a larger image.
