The Three Gorges Dam

After lunch we went on a trip to the dam.  On the way to the bus people were selling oranges.  This part of China grows lot of navel oranges.  I thought they would be Mandarin oranges!

 

There were also people selling fried fish and other foods.  They were cooking them right there in the street.

 

Now we drove to the big dam.  We crossed a new bridge over the river.

 

Before we could go into the area with the dam we had to get off the bus and walk through a security gate.  Little did they know they were only guarding a giant block of cement—but more about that later.

In the security area we passed some very large cages as if for very large dogs.  

 

The big dam blocks the Yangtze River.  I thought the dam was like a giant cement brick sitting in the river. They are building a way to lift up the boats to raise them into the dam above.  For now they have a series of 5 locks that slowly raise the boat up to the dam.

 

The locks work like this.  First you float the boat into the first lock. Then they put more boats in the lock and they close the lock gates. Then they add water into the boxed-in area until it is as high and the water in the second lock.

 

They do this again for the second lock, and the third lock, and the fourth lock and finally the fifth lock.  Now when they open the lock gate you are at the water level of the dam.

Everywhere I go, people want to take a picture with me because I have red hair and blue eyes.  I think tomorrow I will wear a hoody shirt to hide my hair!  I prefer fortune to fame!

 After taking pictures with a lot of Chinese people Pop Pop bought me an ice cream cone. I ate it on the bus.

 

 

Walking back to the Century Star we looked at some shops.  Pop Pop bargained for some t-shirts.  I also got a small green stone turtle. I like turtles.

 

At night we had a birthday party for some of the people on the boat. The boat’s tour leader had everyone sing “Happy Birthday” and we ate cake.

 

During dinner our boat was moving through the locks. Some of us went outside and watched as we were in one of the locks and the water was rising.  

 

Even when I got into bed at night I could see the lock walls outside my window. .  It takes 2 ½ hours to go all the way through the locks to reach the dam.  When I woke up in the morning we were out of the locks and moving again.