The next leg of our China adventure was a cruise on the Yangtze River. The Yangtze is the largest river in Asia and a very important part of China's history and economy.
We boarded the cruise ship at Chongqing in south central China. We didn't spend any time in Chongqing and we were quickly on our way down the river heading east towards China's east coast.
Our first stop was Shibaozhai Temple. It's a 350 year old temple built into the side of a rock wall. In addition to the temple, the other noteworthy part of the site is a giant retaining wall that was recently built around the site. The wall keeps the site from flooding as water levels have risen since the Three Gorges Dam was built.
Next up was a short side trip through the canyons of the Lesser Three Gorges.
As we cruised through the Lesser Three Gorges, we saw some agricultural activity but not too much. Somewhere between 50 and 70% of China's population are farmers but this number is decreasing rapidly as people migrate to the cities. In addition to people who migrate to cities permanently, there are also between 150 and 200 million rural folks who work for part of the year in the cities. The influx of cheap labour from the farms to the cities has helped make China the largest manufacturer in the world.
You probably noticed the grey sky in our photos from the Lesser Three Gorges and all the other spots we'd visited so far in China. Air pollution is a big problem - China gets most of its energy from burning coal and this pollution combined with the bad stuff coming from the large and growing number of factories and cars has created a mess. Air pollution is on its way to becoming China's biggest health threat. Several folks on our tour developed respiratory issues after being in China for just a few days.
The pollution is so bad that it can even hide one of the biggest of all the big stuff in China - the Three Gorges Dam.
The dam cost a whopping $22 billion to build and it does lots of great things for China - it generates hydroelectric power, controls flooding on the Yangtze and increases the river's shipping capacity. On the bad side, the dam raised water levels by 100 metres (300 feet) upstream of the dam. This forced the relocation of over 1 million residents who lived along the river and flooded large amounts of agricultural land.
We reached the end of our four day river cruise at Wuhan. We made a quick stop at the Hubei Provincial Museum to see and hear their famous bronze bells.
From there, it was onto one more plane for a short flight to China's biggest city - Shanghai.
Vanessa and Blake
We boarded the cruise ship at Chongqing in south central China. We didn't spend any time in Chongqing and we were quickly on our way down the river heading east towards China's east coast.
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| Our cruise ship (on the left) with one of its sister ships |
Our first stop was Shibaozhai Temple. It's a 350 year old temple built into the side of a rock wall. In addition to the temple, the other noteworthy part of the site is a giant retaining wall that was recently built around the site. The wall keeps the site from flooding as water levels have risen since the Three Gorges Dam was built.
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| The site with the temple on the left |
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| The colourful bridge that takes you to the site |
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| Us and the temple |
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| A good view of the temple clinging to the rock wall |
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| Russ and Sue making their way to the top of the temple |
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| This photo shows the original ground level and the new retaining wall on the left |
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| Blake chatting with one of the locals |
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| The ship's dock had its own guard dog |
Next up was a short side trip through the canyons of the Lesser Three Gorges.
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| The smog dulled the colours of the canyons |
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| The colour enhance feature on Vanessa's camera brightened it a little |
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| The four of us on our trip through the Lesser Three Gorges |
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| View of the high canyon walls |
As we cruised through the Lesser Three Gorges, we saw some agricultural activity but not too much. Somewhere between 50 and 70% of China's population are farmers but this number is decreasing rapidly as people migrate to the cities. In addition to people who migrate to cities permanently, there are also between 150 and 200 million rural folks who work for part of the year in the cities. The influx of cheap labour from the farms to the cities has helped make China the largest manufacturer in the world.
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| A farm along the Lesser Three Gorges |
You probably noticed the grey sky in our photos from the Lesser Three Gorges and all the other spots we'd visited so far in China. Air pollution is a big problem - China gets most of its energy from burning coal and this pollution combined with the bad stuff coming from the large and growing number of factories and cars has created a mess. Air pollution is on its way to becoming China's biggest health threat. Several folks on our tour developed respiratory issues after being in China for just a few days.
The pollution is so bad that it can even hide one of the biggest of all the big stuff in China - the Three Gorges Dam.
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| The dam is two kilometres across but this is all you can see |
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| You can see down the locks used by ships to go around the dam |
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| One of the locks was closed for cleaning |
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| A model showing what the dam and surrounding area should look like on a clear day |
The dam cost a whopping $22 billion to build and it does lots of great things for China - it generates hydroelectric power, controls flooding on the Yangtze and increases the river's shipping capacity. On the bad side, the dam raised water levels by 100 metres (300 feet) upstream of the dam. This forced the relocation of over 1 million residents who lived along the river and flooded large amounts of agricultural land.
We reached the end of our four day river cruise at Wuhan. We made a quick stop at the Hubei Provincial Museum to see and hear their famous bronze bells.
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| The bells are 2,500 years old and are still fully playable |
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| The original bells aren't played anymore but we listened to a performance with replicas |
From there, it was onto one more plane for a short flight to China's biggest city - Shanghai.
Vanessa and Blake
