Personally for me it is more of a guy thing, but this is truly an amazing fete of engineering. In the words of Sgt. Joe Friday, "If you are interested in the facts, Mam, just the facts", here we go. An unbelievable 1.3 miles wide and 610 feet tall, the colossal Three Gorges Dam is China's largest construction project since the Great Wall. Never before has a dam of such magnitude ever been attempted anywhere in the world. When completed, it will contain twice the amount of concrete of the Itaipu Dam in Brazil which is currently the world's largest. In fact, they removed enough granite here to build seven Great Walls!
China decided to dam the Yangtze in 1994. The river begins in the Himalayan Tangula Mountains. The dam project will take 15 years to build at a cost of over $30 billion. The dam will create a five-trillion-gallon reservoir hundreds of feet deep with a fall of 900 feet and about 385 miles long. It is said to be able to withstand and earthquake measuring 7.0 on the Richter Scale.
This dam will transform the Yangtze River into a more navigable waterway and protect the middle and lower reaches of the river from disastrous floods. As the world's largest hydroelectric plant, the dam's turbines are expected to create the equivalent electricity of 18 nuclear power plants, that's 260 Kilowatts. 
That's enough electricity to provide power for the United States, Canada, Japan and China combined.
That's enough electricity to provide power for the United States, Canada, Japan and China combined.The dam is located near the mouth of the lowest of the Three Gorges where the current is divided by an island, and in November 1997 the first stage was completed with the blocking of two-thirds of the river's width. The water level had risen 59 feet by the end of 1998, while it had gone up a further 171 feet by November 2003. 98 more feet will have been added by 2009 and a final 33 feet that year, when the dam will come into operation. Smaller ships will use a single stage lift, and larger ones five stepped locks. There are over 5,000 barges a day that travel on the Yangtze.
The waters in the Three Gorges will rise a total of 361 feet when the project is complete, gradually changing the scenery in that area. That's why we're so glad that we got to see the Gorges in their present stage and not later.
When returned to the boat around noon, we went to the bar for a Blood Mary. 
We then decided to have a light lunch for a change, so we had soup and a Chinese sample plate with no dessert.
We then decided to have a light lunch for a change, so we had soup and a Chinese sample plate with no dessert.
After lunch we came to our room, cleaned up and had a little rest.
About 3:00 we approached a lock that took over an hour and a half to go through. 
I stayed in the cabin since we had been through the Panama Canal recently (another guy thing). I watched it on closed circuit TV and snoozed a little, but Frank wanted to get up close and personal, so he went up on the deck which was fine with me.
When he came back, we decided to go to the library and play cards. We put a drink in our coffee cups thinking we were fooling everyone, but we really weren't. It's nice at cocktail hour to play Gin and drink a martini. That's what we do when we're home and it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks ;-)
When he came back, we decided to go to the library and play cards. We put a drink in our coffee cups thinking we were fooling everyone, but we really weren't. It's nice at cocktail hour to play Gin and drink a martini. That's what we do when we're home and it's hard to teach an old dog new tricks ;-)I simply cannot begin to describe what a glorious experience this has been for us so far. How blessed we are to be able to spend this time in such a distant land. God has been good to us and we appreciate every second of His goodness. I only wish that my little Mother could have experienced this. Spending quality time in China was her dream and she would have loved every minute of it.
I also want to mention the the humidity is probably the highest that I've ever experienced anywhere. Everything is sticky and damp, so you need fresh clothes every day. There's no need to iron anything. Since it's so damp you can't really tell if things are wrinkled or not!
An added plus is that it's WONDERFUL for you skin and when the breeze blows it's nice and cool. Lots of moisture in the air ... a natural moisturizer without a container. I'm sure that's why the Chinese look so young for so long.
I'm signing off for now. There are more experiences just down the road ... or should I say the River.
I may or may not blog tomorrow as it is the day that I paint with the "girls" at the Gallery Studio, but be sure and check back as the plot thickens and keeps getting better!!!
Pcasso
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