China: the largest dam nation

Many cultures have a day to commemorate the dead. Every spring, China celebrates “Qing Ming,” a three day festival to honor deceased ancestors. Qing Ming is translated as the sweeping of the tombs, during this holiday, families will travel to the tombs of loved ones to pay their respects. We decided to take advantage of this vacation by taking a four day boat tour through the Yangtze River.  

The Yangtze river is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world (if your into post-apocolytic fiction, it is where the first zombie outbreak occurs in the novel “World War Z” soon to be a motion picture). Getting to the boat was a bit of an ordeal. Our scheduled 3 hour bus ride, turned into a 12 hour crawl. The main road was shut down because of falling rocks and every one was traveling for the holiday. We climbed onto the boat around 2 am feeling very bus legged and exhausted (our seats were at the back of the bus with the window open).

When I was a boy, I remember quiting the boy scouts around the sixth grade. I still have the cub scout motto “Do Your Best” ingrained in my head, but the Boy Scout “Be prepared” never really stuck. The week before we went on the trip, the weather was a balmy 80 degrees. Not wanting to over pack again, I undercompensated for the trip before by only bringing summer clothing and a thin sweater. I guess I wasn’t really planning on roughing it, but it certainly was rough during some parts.    

Our dragon boat

Floating docks you can walk on.

The first day we hopped off our tour boat to board another to take us through the Mini Three Gorges. The Mini Three Gorges is the most popular scenic spot on the river. Gorgeous gorges, is all I can say, and not very fast. Unfortunately, (especially for those who didn’t pack a coat) it was cold and raining. The next morning we took another mini boat through a beautiful cannon. Beyond the cannon were huge mountains that made it feel a bit like Glacier. The day started out frigid, but warmed up significantly once the sun came out. After 30 minutes on the boat we got to get off and walk around through some of the gorges.  Later that they we arrived at the Three Gorges Dam.

The Three Gorges dam was finished being built just last year after 15 years of construction. It is now the world’s largest power station, and has sparked a lot of controversy. The consequences of such an enormous project are endless. The Three Gorges dam is five times larger than the Hoover dam and produces 20 times more energy. The man made feat that left the biggest impression, wasn’t the dam itself, but the outdoor escalators we took up a mountain side to get to the dam.