Day 12: Yichang to Shanghai
We went to breakfast at 6.30am; neither of us are hungry again but it’s so early and we have a long day ahead of us. Our ship is docked right beside the Three Gorges Dam so we don’t have far to go for our first adventure of the day.
We met the group at 7.30am on deck 2 so we can disembark the ship onto a smaller vessel in order to experience the “Ships Lift.” We were also met by our new local guide, Jessie. We went onto a custom made vessel for the lift but it will take any ship up to 3,000 tonnes. The lift is an amazing piece of engineering which basically lowers ships down 110 metres to continue downstream towards Shanghai. The lift only works one way but there are a set of locks, 5 to be exact, which the bigger ships can use to go downstream and all ships can use to go back upstream towards Chongquin. It takes almost 4 hours to navigate the locks hence we used the lift which only took 40 minutes. It was fascinating being lowered at 0.2metres per second, especially as we were looking over the huge drop at the other side!
The Locks
After the lift, we got on a bus to visit the Three Gorges Dam Museum and Lookout. Thankfully, there were escalators all the way to the top of the hill as there were a number of steps and it was already 30 degrees. We could see both the lift and the locks and tooks some pictures before heading back to the bus. We had to pick up our luggage which had been plaeed in the left luggage the previous evening and transferred to a new bus. Our first stop was lunch followed by the city museum. We went to the museum as we had time to kill before our flight to Shanghai; another crazy lady, who liked to talk about herself in the third person, told us about some of the pieces that were found when they were building the dam. At the end of the visit, we even got the opportunity to purchase some of the pieces they were selling off; we didn’t buy anything but there were a few interesting things available at a reasonable price.
It was a 20 minute drive to the airport, followed by a reasonably smooth check-in experience; although one of our group had the incorrect name on her ticket so Tony was called in to help! He really deserves a medal and a pay rise! The flight was delayed but we were told it would only take 1 hour 30 minutes so we would make it up! It was another China Eastern flight but this time, we had terrible turbulence. The meal was delayed and we only got bottled water as it was too dangerous to serve. We eventually got food after an hour which meant we had 5 minutes to eat it before we had to pack our tray tables away and get ready for landing. I didn’t eat too much as I`m starting to get a bit fed up with rice and pork!
The Three Gorges Dam is the largest hydroelectric dam in the world and was built in order to control flooding (almost 1million people had died due to the flood waters) and provide electricity. It is build in the middle of Xiling Gorge and is 2335m long, 185m high, 18m wide on the top and 130m wide at the bottom.
We met the group at 7.30am on deck 2 so we can disembark the ship onto a smaller vessel in order to experience the “Ships Lift.” We were also met by our new local guide, Jessie. We went onto a custom made vessel for the lift but it will take any ship up to 3,000 tonnes. The lift is an amazing piece of engineering which basically lowers ships down 110 metres to continue downstream towards Shanghai. The lift only works one way but there are a set of locks, 5 to be exact, which the bigger ships can use to go downstream and all ships can use to go back upstream towards Chongquin. It takes almost 4 hours to navigate the locks hence we used the lift which only took 40 minutes. It was fascinating being lowered at 0.2metres per second, especially as we were looking over the huge drop at the other side!
The Locks
The Lift
After the lift, we got on a bus to visit the Three Gorges Dam Museum and Lookout. Thankfully, there were escalators all the way to the top of the hill as there were a number of steps and it was already 30 degrees. We could see both the lift and the locks and tooks some pictures before heading back to the bus. We had to pick up our luggage which had been plaeed in the left luggage the previous evening and transferred to a new bus. Our first stop was lunch followed by the city museum. We went to the museum as we had time to kill before our flight to Shanghai; another crazy lady, who liked to talk about herself in the third person, told us about some of the pieces that were found when they were building the dam. At the end of the visit, we even got the opportunity to purchase some of the pieces they were selling off; we didn’t buy anything but there were a few interesting things available at a reasonable price.
It was a 20 minute drive to the airport, followed by a reasonably smooth check-in experience; although one of our group had the incorrect name on her ticket so Tony was called in to help! He really deserves a medal and a pay rise! The flight was delayed but we were told it would only take 1 hour 30 minutes so we would make it up! It was another China Eastern flight but this time, we had terrible turbulence. The meal was delayed and we only got bottled water as it was too dangerous to serve. We eventually got food after an hour which meant we had 5 minutes to eat it before we had to pack our tray tables away and get ready for landing. I didn’t eat too much as I`m starting to get a bit fed up with rice and pork!
We landed just after 9pm, collected our luggage and headed to the arrivals hall to meet our new local guide, Steven. We called him Tony`s cousin as he had the same hair style; it is apparently all the rage in China just now! The journey to the hotel was almost an hour; Steven talked for about 15 minutes before realising we were all falling asleep as it had been a seriously long day. There were, however, two stand-out stories; firstly, regarding the British and the Opium Wars and the second about building skyscrapers in Shanghai. Well here is the first piece of information; have you ever heard the term “being Shanghai`d”? It means being kidnapped! When the British were here during the opium wars, they apparently kidnapped lots of Chinese who were off their heads on drugs; they then woke up as slaves on the ships never to be seen again! And the second story; how long does it take to build a 30 storey skyscraper? Apparently, 15 days! Basically, everything is pre-built and they just stick it all together with concrete and wait for it to dry....reassuring!
On arrival at the hotel, Tony did his usual and called out our names to give us a room key; the organisation has been immense! We were on the 10th floor of the hotel, looking out over a network or ring roads and a stadium. It’s almost midnight so we decide to call it a night as it is going to be another long day tomorrow.
.jpeg)
.jpeg)
Comments
Post a Comment