Three Gorges and Wushan

April 18, 2012

This morning we went on smaller boat to go to the Three Gorges.  When you get to the gorges the hills are steep. 

 

Some places there are sheer cliffs. The hills are covered with trees and bamboo plants.  

 

On our way up the river we passed a town named Wushan.  The city of Wushan was built on steep hills and cliffs.  Most of the buildings were high-rise buildings.  They all looked new.  

 

The city of Wushan was actually over 2,000 years old.  The man on the boat said that the Chinese government had to rebuild the city of Wushan up on the steep cliffs because they flooded the old city of Wushan when they built the Three Gorges Dam.  We were floating about 300 feet above the 2,000 year-old city of Wushan!  Here is a picture of the old city of Wushan before it was covered with water.

 

We sat on the front of the boat and looked at the gorges to see monkeys and mountain goats.  The monkeys were scarce.  We could see bushes shaking but the little monkeys did not come out. 

 

We could see the “hanging coffins” of important people into some caves on the side of the gorges.  The higher they were placed on the cliff the bigger the “cheeses” they were.  

 

The coffins in the cliffs were over 2,000 years old and nobody really knows how they got the coffins so high up on the cliffs.  We could see them high up but the water level had gone up over 200 feet when they built the dam. How did those people get the coffins that high up in the air? The coffins were made of wood but now they are petrified wood.

When the gorges got so close together we took a smaller boat called a sampan. In the old days they rowed the sampan.  Today we used a motor.

There were lots of sampans on the river.

 

The man driving our sampan was funny.  He let people try on his hat and straw coat and pretend they were driving the sampan.  He also sang a song for us.

 

It was a good trip to the Three Gorges. On the way home it got dark and we could see the new Wushan all lit up at night.