Welcome to Three Gorges Dam! This hydroelectric dam was an amazing engineering, social, and economic success, according to the Chinese government. The project had been talked about, studied, discussed and argued as early as 1932...and was finally opened in 2006. The dam provides electricity, increases shipping capacity on the Yangtze River, and reduces the potential for floods downstream. It was very controversial around the world as it displaced 1.3 million people and flooded archaeological and cultural sites.
We were able to tour the dam site in the afternoon and then actually navigate through the 5 levels of the lock system that evening. It took about 4 hours to complete and was very interesting to experience each step of the way.
Over the next three days we were able to see many consequences as a result of the dam and changes that took place in towns and lives as a result.
Note: The two blue pictures in the upper left hand corner of the collage are pictures of pictures. The next two down are pictures of the model of the dam at the site.
Our local guide did a great job explaining the site and how it all works. Unfortunately there is nowhere you can go to see the water flowing over the dam, but it looks great in pictures, so I took pictures of pictures and they look pretty real...so I think I really did see it!
One of the really fun things during our visit were all the school children who were there...hundreds of them. I had my picture taken with many, mostly girls. They are so happy if you pay attention to them, smile, and try to say hello. One single guy in our tour group was very tall. He was posing with some little guys and suddenly Otto picked up one of the boys and put him on his shoulders, so the boy felt like he was really high up. Suddenly the whole huge room where the model of the dam was located, broke out in laughter, screaming and clapping...Otto was a hero. About half an hour later he did it again out on the yard and about 200 young kids mobbed him! He came back to the coach just beaming...so happy to have made them happy.
Going through the locks was an amazing process. There was a huge barge next to us and another boat behind us. If the Great Wall was a wonder of the ancient world, this dam system has to be one of the modern engineering wonders of the world.
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