Chang Jiang
Yichang is situated just down stream of the big dam that is designed to provide a lot of electrical power to China. It is projected to be fully operational around 2007. The better part of our river trip was upstreams so we often saw markings for water levels. Below are markings up to 40 meter, although the dam will reach up to 175 m when it is full.
Transportion of maize. Most other barges carried pit coal. Of course an assortment of passenger vessels also traveed the river. We travelled second class which was very much more comfortable than the third class cabins (next to some very messy toilets). The more famous sights along this stretch were the Three Gorges. We went through the first at night. That was a pretty amazing experience with the air pushing through so fast that the the rain was almost horizontal.
Many apartment houses were already vacated. Approximately 2 million people have to move because of the dam. Most of them were moved inlands, to the west. Altough it seemed that many just had moved to higher grounds. This factory wonÕt be in use for much longer.
Since the water level on the river can change a lot the quays are made out of barges attached with steel wires.
