Today, we got up at 6:00 a.m. to be able to see our ship enter the Wu (Witches) Gorge. It was misty and raining but we put on our raingear and headed forthe deck. It was worth it to be able to watch us enter this amazing narrow gorge but now the lens on our camera is not opening or closing well. I think it may have gotten some moisture in it when Lenny took the camera out to the deck.
WuShan is situated at the confluence of the Yangtze and Daning rivers. The town has existed since the latter part of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1027 BC) and now is the home to 30,000 residents. The name of the town originates with Wu Xian, a respected Tany Dynasty doctor in the imperial court who is buried on Nanling Mt.
As we continued on our way toward the Lesser Gorges we transferred to a small ferry to go through them. We saw how the old bridges were covered when the area was flooded from building the dam and the start of new bridge construction. It continued to rain pretty hard on our ferr trip so we were unable to go out on the deck but the mountains were so beautiful even through the haze and the rain.
In this area, the govt. owned all the land and the houses. Our current local guide told us that he and his family were happy about the dam project because they were moved to much better living conditions in new apartments that were built for them. The farmers, however, were very upset. They lease their land from the government and it was very traumatic for them to have to relocate. Our guide told us that he could see the Yangtze River from his original home and he showed us a picture showing us his home town which is now completely under water. He had five people living in about 600 sq. ft. He went to the University near the city that was destroyed by the earthquake last year. He lost several classmates in the disaster. He studied to be a blood lab tech but then left to become a tour guide. He said the he makes the same salary but is off for four months when he can travel with his family.
We saw what they call "hanging coffins" which the Ba minority people placed high in the mountains caves about 2000 years ago. It is apparently a mystery how these coffins have survived this amount of time.
At about 6:00 p.m., our ship received permission to enter the locks of the three Gorges Dam. This is the world's largest dam. It is being built in the middle of the Xiling Gorge, the longest of the three gorges on the Yangtze River. The dam will raise the river to a level of 175 meters above sea level, creating a 600 kilometer long reservoir with a storage capacity of 39.9 billion cubic meters. By the time the dam in totally completed, villages in 19 counties and cities will be flooded, causing 1.5 million people to be relocated. The construction of this project will cost the equivalent of 2.8 billion US dollars. The construction began in 1994. The body of the dam was completed in 2003 and it will be totally completed by the end of 2009.
A little more Chinglish: "We stay here first" said our guide to our group but he meant, our group will go last so wait here.
I am getting used to the squat toilets but they have no bars to help you get back up or a place to hold a purse, no toilet paper, no soap, no towels! This is not one of the fun parts of this trip for me! Linda Newport figured out that we could take the plastic shower caps from our hotel to cover our shoes, leave our purses with the guys, put tissues and antiseptic gel in our pockets and go for it! Linda has been capturing our expressions on her camera when we exit the toilets but I don't think that I will publish any of those pictures here. We have been laughing a lot. We have also learned not to drink a lot when we are climbing up mountians as the toilets up there are unuseable, at least from our standards.
Today, we also learned that the Chinese are unable to get CNN or BBC on their home TV's so they rely on the internet and some of that is also blocked from them such as YouTube.
Back at the ship, we had dinner and a staff show which was really pretty well done. This is where our blog was blocked so the rest of the entries will be typed in after we return.
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