Lock Park Garden

There are pics today. Our flight to Shanghai was canceled. Our tour company arranged for us to take a bullet train to another city, then fly from there to Shanghai. It means we won’t arrive in Shanghai until 9:30 PM. But we are quite happy because we didn’t have to miss anything on the tour.

Last Lock (Left side has low water level)

We woke up last night and realized we were in the first of 5 locks on the Yangtze River. We went out to our balcony to watch. There were 4 tour boats in the lock, 2 wide and 2 long. There was plenty of room lengthwise, but the width was quite crowded. There was only 10 feet or so to spare. The boats navigate in and out of the lock on their own power. The pilots are quite good, but they inevitably bump each other or bump the wall. They have rubber bumpers along both sides of the boat and travel slowly. Mostly we couldn’t even feel the bumps. We saw the lock finish emptying, the exit gate open, the boats move to the second lock, and the gate closing. That was enough, and we went back to bed.

Last Lock Door is Open, boats are moving to the river

By the time breakfast started, we were docked at the dam. There are lots of river tour boats, and they travel in lock step. They generally go through the locks at night. Commercial ships go through in the daytime. When docking, the first ship ties up to the dock. The next ship ties up to the first. We once walked through two other ships getting to our destination. A wall of ship’s crew prevented us from wondering around the wrong ship. Our local guide told us that 10,000 people visit the dam on an average day. That grows to 40,000 on holidays. (Some dam visitors arrive by bullet train or other transit.)

Dam and Future “Small Boat” Lift Termination

The scope of this project boggles the mind. I’ll let those who are interested look up statistics on the Internet. When they needed to remove a mountain of granite, they got a few tens of thousands of soldiers together and “disappeared” the mountain. They have two sets of locks. Either set can go in either direction. Generally, one set goes upstream and the other goes downstream. Depending on size, up to 6 ships can fit in a lock. There is no charge for ships to use the locks. (Hydro power pays all the bills). The project is already paid for itself after 19 years of operation. The locks are already working at capacity. Cargo ships are backed up trying to get through. The Chinese solution is to build a boat lift so the smaller boats can go up- or down-stream separately. A “Small Ship” is anything under 13 tons, which includes most of the tour boats.

This 4 Stage Escalator Replaces 200 Steps

The dam guide told us they are building a new canal. Beijing is in an arid area and needs more water. So they are building a canal to love water from the Yangtze. Its equivalent to building a canal from the Mississippi to DC. In the US or in China, one thing is the same. Now that more water is available, farmer all along the canal want more water. There are continuous fights about who gets how much water. Even the Chinese can’t always achieve harmony.

The rest of our day is on buses, trains, and planes. (Fortunately, we didn’t have to ride scooters around the streets of China!)