Three Gorges Dam in China.

No matter where we are, no matter where our house sitting takes us, every morning Peter likes to read the newspapers online. He looks at the local ones, and the New Zealand ones to keep up to date with what's happening there too. Today he found an article about the Three Gorges Dam in China. Check out the pictures on this link.

http://www.news.com.au/travel/news/fast-and-furious-worlds-most-powerful-dam-in-full-operation/story-e6frfq80-1226435772794

Finally, after about 40 years of construction, this enormous dam has finally become fully functional. It’s the most amazing place to visit. When we lived in China we did a five day tour down the Yangtze River, down five locks that took us from the river level above to the river level below, about 200 meters difference, and then we went for a tour round the Three Gorges dam.

When I was young, I lived not far from the Arapuni Dam, sitting across the Waikato River in New Zealand. I got this photo from this website, I hope they don't mind me using this picture.

http://www.trevispa.eu/viewdoc.asp?co_id=517&pag=2

 

As you can see this is not a very large dam, but when you are a child driving across the top of it, it seemed pretty big. However, in comparison, the Three Gorges is huge. It is about 2 kilometers wide.  This is a photo I took in the display sections. This is a model of the area.

In the middle of the picture on the left is the dam itself. On the right of the picture in the middle is a model of the locks. There are five of them constantly in use, and boats huge and tiny have to go through this series of locks to get from the river level below to the level above. In the middle is what they call 'the lift'. It is possible to put a huge boat in here and lift it as if in an elevator right to the top.

We are on our boat going through the locks, on our way downstream. The one on the left is probably a coal barge. This is the type of boat we were on for our five day cruise. htp://www.193km.cn/cn/cruise/regal/2.asp

Whole new cities were built along the river to accommodate those people displaced when their villages and cities went under the rising waters. When the Chinese decide to do things they do them on a grand scale.

Part of the tour of the dam took us to a high lookout over the whole construction area. I think this must be part of the lock area.

 It looks terribly polluted, but actually the air all around here was full of mist too, there is a huge amount of water flowing through the turbines and churning out at the bottom of the dam. It was mid summer and the humidity levels were extremely high.

So having been there, its nice to know the whole thing is now working to its full capacity. The electric power it generates keeps a large part of Northern China going.