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The Three Gorges |  |
The legendary Three Gorges (San Xia, pronounced san she-uh) on the Yangtze River will be flooded when the new dam is completed, forever altering the magnificent scenery and forcing millions of people to relocate. The city in the picture above was built to replace one on the opposite bank that will be completely covered by the rising water.
Our four night cruise on the the Victoria II went upstream from Wushan to Chongqing. We had reserved (and paid for)
an upgrade to a Jr. Suite (recommended if you care about such things). This gave us first shot at
higher upgrades (discounted since they were still vacant) when we arrived onboard, and we grabbed one of
the two Shangrai-la suites with private decks - wonderful.
We were very satisfied with the accomodations and cruise. The only complaints we heard (and we heard them repeatedly) were that the lighting in the standard cabins was quite dim.
Highlights
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Xiling is the longest (forty-one miles) and deepest gorge, with cliffs that rise up to four thousand feet. | ||||
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We found Wu Gorge (20 miles long) to be the most beautiful. The cliffs form what seem
to be overlapping layers, receding farther and farther into the background. You don't sail past the view in the picture, you
sail through it! It reminded us of the linear
layout of the Forbidden City, in the way each layer leads you farther into the progression.
 At only five miles, Qutang is the shortest gorge.
Some of the cliff formations look like people or animals. We saw the face of a lion in this one. |  We took a three hour sampan trip down the Daning river to see the Lesser Three Gorges.
This is Emerald Gorge. We saw the remains of an ancient plank walkway on the sides of the cliffs and
caught a glimpse of a thousand-year-old coffin suspended high up, but didn't see any of the monkeys that play on the cliffs. | |