Three Gorges Dam

April 2-6, 2009

From Wikipedia: The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric river dam that spans the Yangtze River in Sandouping, Yichang, Hubei, China. It is the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. Except for a planned ship lift, all the original plan of the project was completed on October 30, 2008, when the 26th generator was brought to commercial operation. Six additional generators in the underground power plant are being installed, with the dam thus not expected to become fully operational until around 2011. By April 2009, it had generated 300 TWh of electricity, covering 30% its project cost.

Elwin and I joined 50-plus BYU China Teachers aboard the Victoria Cruise down the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Yichang, Hebei, a 500 mile trek. Along the way, we saw the 3 beautiful gorges, a very beautiful Lesser gorge and new villages for part of the 1.3 millions people who were relocated because of the project. Part of the amazing part was the water depth; originally, the water was 3' to 6' deep. After the dam was built, the water was about 250' deep, and the walls of the gorges were still steep, lush with greenery and shrouded in mist and broken clouds.
Once we reached the five locks, we waited until enough ships were prepared to pass through. Ours went in first on the right hand side; the wall was so close that we reached out and touched it. A large barge pulled in along our port side, and four additional ships came in behind us and the barge next to us. It took 4 hours for us to pass through the five locks; fortunately, it was at night so we were only awake for passing through the first two.

Enjoy the slideshow below. We highly recommend this trip. It was absolutely beautiful!