The Three Gorges
Leaving Chongqing was made more excellent by boarding the cruise ship, Splendid China, knowing that the Three Gorges were ahead of me. The Three Gorges, part of the “mighty Yangtze River”, is a famous tourist site for Chinese and Westerners. I spent the trip sharing a room with a Chinese tourist which, apart from improving my Chinese, was an experience all to its own. The staff, mainly Wuhanese, were also a highlight of the boat. Cheerios go to Eric and Linda!
The first stop on the cruise was Fengdu, otherwise known as “The Ghost City”. As the legend goes, the Ghost City is the point where ghosts find out whether they can enter the netherworld. As actuality goes, it’s a point crammed with tourists and consisting of a few temples, none of which are actually very exciting. The main points of interest were the three tests that ghosts must undertake in order to reach the netherworld. Firstly, at the Temple of Heng and Ha, ghosts that had misbehaved are knocked down by Guardian Heng’s roar of dazzling light and Guardian Ha’s yellow wind. Secondly, at the “Nothing-To-Be-Done Bridge”, a ghost who cannot walk across in three strides is considered a villain, knocked down into the river below and deprived of choosing a new life. For those ghosts that managed to pass the second test, they could choose a life of wealth, love or prosperity. Thirdly, at the Ghost Torturing Pass, “customers” throw a coin into the water basin owned by the Shopkeepers. If the coin sinks, the ghost is allowed to pass. If the coin floats, it is considered unacceptable and the ghost is not allowed to pass.
That evening we celebrated our entry onto the cruise ship with a welcome party. It was here that I got my first chance at ballroom dancing since leaving Australia. I was fairly surprised that Eric, one of the table waiters on the ship, could actually dance a Viennese Waltz. Well, at least he could dance it until he needed to change rotation direction at which point he did struggle. We saw some traditional Chinese dancing and some less traditional Latin American dancing but I did really enjoy the night.
Day Two saw the second stop on the cruise, White Emperor City, a much more pleasant place partly because it is an optional stop and therefore entertains fewer tourists. It was also much more impressive, in particular the courtyard. It is said that the city was founded by Gongsun Shu in 25 AD during the Eastern Han Dynasty when he saw smoke in the shape of a white dragon coming out of the well and declared himself the White Emperor. It is also famous for it’s point at the entrance of Qutang Gorge, the first gorge on the way from Chongqing to Yichang. Personally, I liked the courtyard in the centre of the city.
At this point, the ship cruised into the first of the three gorges, Qutang Gorge, and we spent thirty minutes looking at the side of the mountains.
After Qutang Gorge, the cruise passed through the second of the Three Gorges, Wu Gorge. I thought that Wu Gorge was the most spectacular, in particular the shapes of the peaks on either side. According to legend, these peaks are actually Yao Ji, the youngest daughter of the Heavenly Mother and her eleven fairy handmaidens. Shennu Feng, or Goddess Peak, is said to embody Yao Ji. She is now seen as a protector of the people, guiding sailing boats through the gorge and easing the Yangtze’s infamous floods.
After cruising through the last of the three gorges, we boarded a smaller boat and cruised through the smaller gorges of Shennong Stream. The scenery here was much better than the larger gorges as the river was narrower and the cliffs rose up on either side without a view of what was ahead. The highlight of the cruise was getting on to a smaller boat similar to a canoe and being taken across “rapids” by trackers. Before larger boats were introduced to the river, these Trackers were used to deliver the cargo through the Three Gorges area. Traditionally, they were naked and at the bottom of the human chain. When they arrive at the rapids, they get out of the boat and drag the boat through the rapids by walking along the side of the cliffs and pulling the boat with ropes. Unfortunately for us as tourists they are now made to wear clothes although a small pair of shorts does not necessarily mean they are fully clothed.
After this, we boarded our cruise boat again and headed off into the night. We celebrated the evening in style with our farewell dinner, including snake wine. Then we headed upstairs to a talent show provided by staff and guests.
The next day we awoke to the Three Gorges Dam, and surprise of surprises, it was pretty damn dull (pun intended). I mean, a dam is a dam. The English translator was terrible, so I joined the Chinese group, and Eric helped translate the parts I didn’t know.
The dam is one of the few man-made structures on Earth visible to the naked eye from space. The dam body was completed in 2006. The dam is 181 metres tall and spans 2335 metres across the Yangtze River. Its accompanying hydropower plant, completed in 2012, has a generating capacity of 22,500 megawatts. When fully operational, the dam will provide electricity, increase shipping capacity and reduce the impact of floods. However, the large size of the reservoir caused a range of issues upstream. It submerged two cities, 114 towns and 1680 villages along the river banks. So far it has caused the relocation of 1.24 million residents. It has flooded 1300 archaeological sites and changed the appearance of the Three Gorges. The ancient cities of Guizhou, Kuizho and Wushan were completely submerged.
The dam has two locks for ships and a separate ship lift. The image below shows the part of the dam where the ships go in before the water is released to the level of the lower part of the dam, and the ships go out through the bottom door.
