RadioRoryFrom 12-thousand-feet up in Tibet we fly down to water level in Chongqing, China to hop on a cruise of the Yangtze River. The “Victoria Jenna” is one of the newer ships sailing the Yangtze, giving passengers an up-close look at the man-made and natural wonders.
The port city of Chongqing is just the latest booming metropolis that we find in China.
Construction cranes are everywhere and the work to build new roads, apartment towers, and bridges appears never-ending.
The “Victoria Jenna” runs trips up and down the river but the highlights are the same, the Three Gorges and the Three Gorges Dam.
The mountains and cliffs are impressive, but the way people have been able to cling to those hillsides is remarkable, with houses, farms, and temples around every corner. I’m constantly looking for the access road to get to the home or the market they would use for their daily needs, but I never find them.
There are several stops along the way, but the docks are basic, if they even exist. Ships like ours will dock right next to one another, sometimes three across, and passengers will get off their ship and walk through the lobbies of two others in order to reach the rickety dock at the shore. Really, the ships get THIS close!
Some entrepreneurs don’t need a dock. They take their boat right up to our ship to sell items directly to the crew.
The Yangtze is a major economic artery for China. The headwaters are in the mountains of Tibet and the river cuts through most of China and empties into the Pacific in Shanghai. For centuries, the river has been used for importing and exporting goods. But there are smaller offshoots of the river too.
In one area, it’s so narrow that we take an excursion on smaller boats capable of navigating the passageways. We had to walk on a kind of floating dock that was made up of plastic pods. Imagine five-gallon gasoline canisters lashed together. They were VERY unstable with just a small rope barely above knee-height keeping everyone in line. It was honestly terrifying!
It was also beautiful.
On the last night of the cruise we enter the locks of the Three Gorges Dam. An engineering marvel, it produces more power than any other dam in the world and stabilizes water levels in the Yangtze. Building the damn came at a very high price.
More than a million families had to be relocated (stop and think of that number again) and important archaeological and cultural sites were lost when a 250-square-mile area was flooded. The long-term environmental impact of the project is unknown. Here’s the other problem. The dam was supposed to supply ten-percent of the China’s electricity, but growth has been so fast-paced, that figure is closer to just three-percent. Many now ask, what will China do next to meet the growing need?
The dam is a testament to engineering and ingenuity, but also to the power of China’s central government. It wanted a dam, and it got one. It paid off and relocated residents, but it didn’t necessarily find them new lives. One-time farmers now line the streets near boat docks selling crappy T-shirts, fans, and novelties.
It’s the kind of junk that was probably manufactured at factories just up the river.