Cruise implies a smooth ride...

A few shots from Mt Hushan:




Liza climbing down the "stairs"



Day 28:
Arrive at Chongqing around 9 in the morning, small city of only 35 million people (well 7 million in the core, 28 million in the "suburbs"). Upon our arrival we realized we had no clue where we were going as we had expected the cruise to greet us at the station in some form. Turns out that was the plan but the very petite, nice girl who came rushing up to the two sore thumbs in the crowd asking if we were Eliza quickly explained that there had been an emergency and our actual guide was unable to come so she had been sent instead.



After checking in and dropping out bags on the ship (and jumping on the softest beds yet), our stand in guide kindly took us to the one major attraction in Chongqing. Turned out that was the end of the time she had as she actually holds an office job with the company and was needed post lunch. Wandered a bit and then decided to head back. A few wrong turns later and we could see our boat, from high on a hill. Pretty sure we started passing through a large number of "back yards" as we started a hunt to take any set of stairs going down we could find.

The buildings we wandered down to find our ship:


A few hours later we waved goodbye to Chongqing in all it's night time neon goodness and headed down the Yangtze.




Day 29:
Not sure if this falls in day 28 or 29 but somewhere in the middle of the night I woke up to a major jerk. A jerk of us dropping anchor in the middle of the river in incredibly dense fog. Hhhmmm, back to sleep.

The fogged in view:


Morning found all boats in the area still completely fogged in, changing that days itinerary. Headed to the main deck to hear a talk on the flora and fauna of the Yangtze, wherein we learned the there is no longer a Yangtze river dolphin as "It was unable to adapt to the increase in noise and pollution and therefore is no longer here" What a way to put it.
When the fog finally did lift we went to visit the Ghost City (eh) though in the process got to see a new hotel being built there (see picture below)....so weird, you get to stay in some dudes face.





And continuing the theme of Safety Third, a picture from the path up to the Ghost city:


Day 30:
The final full day of the cruise turned out to be the most interesting. The day started with a "Shore Excursion" that involved taking two different boats.


The lesser three gorges




We toured through the Lesser Three Gorges on a medium sized boat (200 people) and then on a really small boat (12 people). The scenery continues to be spectacular. Some highlights of the excursion include seeing monkeys eating and drinking in the river banks, some of the local people singing and playing music on their boats, and the lush green colors of the plants.


The lesser lesser three gorges




Also, all along the main river are huge construction projects. Large shipyards can be seen every couple of hours, and there have been so many huge bridges under construction.

Right at dinner time we started to enter the Three Gorges River Dam area and the locks that would take us to the other side of the dam. As an engineer, I was giddy as a school girl. This is the largest hydro-electric power plant in the world and one of the biggest civil engineering project ever. Passing through the locks was an event all to itself. The locks are similar in principle to the ones in Ballard. Boats go in, doors shut, water goes out, doors open, boats go out. However, the scale is completely different. These locks hold about eight large ships (picture eight of the passenger-only ferries then run in the San Juans). Plus there are five levels to step down. Over all - Really cool. Eliza was happy to continue the diner discussion on the current economic...yadda...yadda... (I don't know I wasn't paying attention). But not me, I scarfed down what ever they ship was trying to pass as food for this meal and was off to see the progress down the locks. I am not sure how much water each lock holds. One, every facts is in metric (m^3, whatever) and second, none of the crew was sure. A lot, I think was the consensus.

Approaching the lock:


In the first lock:


The door closing on the 4th lock:



Day 31:
Today we actually got to see the Three Gorges Dam up close and personal. Okay, we didn't get as close as I wanted. But then I an not sure if the average tour group gets to go into the turbine are, see the control room, and all the uninteresting things us engineering types like.

The highlight of the tour had to be the "security check". Before the tour group could enter the dam area we were routed through a security checkpoint. We were told to leave our big bags and other bulk items on the bus. We exited the bus and walked through a security gate (just like at the airport) and any one with a bag passed it through a x-ray machine (just like at the airport). However, unlike at the airport, when the gate did its little ding-ding (when someone has metal) the security guards gave them a perfunctory pat down and waved them through. I had my camera on me when I passed through. I set off the alarm and was patted down. Not only did they touch my camera when patting me down, but they did not ask me to take out the large heavy object they had just found on my person. And the topper, the bus we just got off pulled around the security check and picked us up again with out being searched. Pretty sure a blind monkey with a rocket launcher could have passed through security.

The tour of the dam explained a little of the history of the site and the future plans for the area. It was a nice intro tour than bored Eliza, but I thought it was interesting. In another "I sort of understand why this was done, but what..." moment, we were ushered in to a room with a complete scale model of the dam project. To be fair, lots of places I have gone all over the world have had scale models of the engineering project. They make it easy to point out tidbits of information regarding the unique highlights of where ever you are. But this particular model was located in a building on a hill next to the dam. "Hello people, if you turn around you can see the actual-real life dam".

As an engineering project the Three Rivers Dam was pretty damn cool. Ha, waited till the last paragraph for the joke you all thought was coming much sooner. And noticed I was never tempted into the whole "gorges" vs "gorgeous" combo. Let me assure you the tour guides showed no such restraint.

Once back on the boat it was time to check out. The overhead announcement said not to rush as the lobby was crowded and there was no rush. The ladies at the front desk however had a different idea for John and I. After our 3rd call that went something like this: "ring ring" "Hello" "Um, we recommend you check out now" "OK be there shortly" We took it as our cue to actually leave. We were met in the ship lobby by our guide and driver who took us from the ship to the airport, roughly a 40 minute drive, during which our guide filled us in on all the possible bridge history and related trivia one could or should ever know, including lists of famous movies and books with bridges in the titles or story lines. When we did arrive at the airport he asked for a quick favor, he needed to know how to spell Garfunkel, as in Simon and Garfunkel as he is our guides current fave singer. It also turns out his english is entirely self taught, from a set of encyclopedias he was given a few years back (which explains the lists used to describe everything).

The topper for the day was me losing a mild bet to John. Prior to starting the trip I bet that the only people I would run into on this trip would be planned rendezvous. Well, talking to some folks at the airport, turns out they know both my Grandma Hulda and my aunt & uncle very well. I'm not sure that counts, but John says it does.

Made it to Shanghai and our hostel without major incidence. Woo hoo, done with the rocky river cruise.

(Actual dam pictures to follow)