At about 8am the next morning, we finally set off down (or up) the Yangtze. The views were really very good from the cabin with big wide & tall windows. Along the way, there are water level markers on the shoreline now & then - the river is meant to rise by 8 metres each year (for how many years?) now it’s been dammed. Something like 20 million people have been displaced, many having to move from where their families have lived for generations. The government has built so many new apartment blocks to house the displaced people, but many of these just lie vacant, not being used & wasting away.
Over the 3 night river journey, we did a couple of shore excursions - one to a Taoist temple, a small boat trip up a tributary, & the final one was checking out the dam site. The highlight of the trip though was traversing through the 5 gates of the dam over a four hour period on the last night. Watching from the roof of the ship as the boat quickly lowered with the falling water level. Seemingly, this is the biggest fresh water dam passage in the world - incredible!
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