It was an early wake-up call this morning. During the night we had passed through the 5 locks at the Three Gorges Dam.
After breakfast we headed off to a bus to take us to the Dam Project. Although the dam is massive, it is not the highest (Hoover Dam), nor the longest, somewhere in S. America, but it does produce the most electricity at 22.4 Giga Watts!
In addition to the two sets of 5 locks, there is a new (under test) boat lift. Whereas the locks take about 4 hours to transit, the boat lift takes around 40 minutes. The lift is limited to boats 3,000 tons or less and charges for use. The locks can take up to 10,000 ton boats and are free.
The pictures above show the 5 lock system, one set upstream and one set downstream
New Boat Lift, this is taken at the upper level. The boat enters the chamber, doors are closed and the boat and chamber are lowered by the overhead gantry cranes.
Car Carrier entering the new boat lift.
For Amanda to Identify, these were large Butterflies!
After the tour, we returned to the boat to pack while we passed through the third and final gorge, Xiling gorge. Because of the dam the water level is fairly constant, so buildings can be placed close to the water.
Finally, it was time to head downstairs to meet our guide and say goodbye to the people we had met on the trip and disembark at Yichang.
We met our guide fairly quickly, and were whisked off to a restaurant for lunch.Next it was off to the train station to catch our semi bullet train (max speed ONLY 220km/h) to Suzhou; a 7 hour journey.
We booked into the hotel around 2300 and pretty much hit the sack immediately!