Jangtsekiang / Chang Jiang

Ships dock not far from the spot where Mao swam across the Yangze in 1966. 

Particularly impressive is how much of the work is done by hand, such as loading and unloading the ships.  Heavy machinery is only seldom seen.

It quickly becomes clear what great amounts of sand and clay are transported from the Yangze into valley areas.  And this occurs in a region that is almost perfectly flat.  There is only a 192 m difference in altitude along the 2400 km stretch between Shanghai and Chongqing. 

The river appears extremely wide, yet it is deceptive: the passing channel for larger boats is very small and is constantly changing due to drifting sand.   A visit to the bridges quickly shows the extraordinarly skills needed by the ships’ crews once you see the often chaotic river traffic, especially when you consider that shipping occurs around the clock. Complete concentration is required at night, despite precise maps, huge spotlights, echo systems, radar and radio-controlled traffic.

However, travel by ship is often a better alternative to road travel, even for trucks.  The trip from Wuhan to the Three Gorges Dam costs around 200 euros, including meals and sleeping accomodations.

The Captain and crew invite you for a welcome reception to introduce themselves.   The captain of the Princess Elaine from Regal China Cruises is one of the most experienced and skilled captains on the Yangze. His ship was allowed the make the first passage through the locks at the Three Gorges Dam.

In the early hours of the morning on our second day, we reach the Gezhou Dam, which holds the river at a 22 m height.  This 2560m long dam was built exclusively to gain experience for building the Three Gorges Dam project. It still counts as one of the largest dams in the world.  The lock passages are so narrow that pushing is needed.  7 - 8 ships can be lifted at the same time.

With the first rays of the new day, we continued into the Xiling Gorge, the first of 3 gorges.  Earlier, this point was the most dangerous for ship travel.  However, the dam now has removed the obstacles and shallow areas.

After about 30 minutes we pass an obelisk, which is the former border between  Japan and national China.  20,000 Chinese died here in battle.

With the Chinese tendency for figurative descriptions, this mountain is called the Sleeping Mao.

The waiting cruise ships then announce  the Three Gorges Dam.

This huge, disputed structure appears directly before us.  At the time of these pictures – in April 2004 – the water has been dammed 70m; by 2009 another 25 m of water will be dammed.  This will create the largest artificial lake in the world with a length of 630 km.   This makes the Yangze until Chongqing navigable for ships up to 10,000 BRT. The dam wall is around 2,300 m long and 175m high.

The decision to build the dam led to the first vote in the National Congress which was not decided unanimously. With around 1100 votes to 400, the dam construction was approved. 

Besides improving shipping, the dam serves to control flooding along the Yangze. Between 1931 and 1935, flooding cost 150,000 people their lives and in 1954 over 35,000 people died.  In 1949, train transport along the vital Beijing – Hongkong line was interrupted for  100 days. In August 1996, a flood catastrophe was only barely prevented with the help of 200,000 soldiers and millions of civilian helpers.  In 2002, another catastrophe was prevented by evacuating half a million people in time.  Already on the journey from Wuhan to here, we could see the  immense dam to the side of the Yangze and we were filled with awe.  However during flooding, parts of this flat landscape are covered with water up to 14 m in height.  The efforts of the Chinese government to cope with this problem are enormous.  Approximately 1,3 million people had to be relocated due to construction of the dam.  Costs are estimated to be 20 billion dollars.

Another reason for building the dam is the energy it provides: after completion, generators will be able to deliver 18200 megawatts, which is 1/3 of China’s energy requirements today and is the equivalent of 18 nuclear reactors or 50 million tons of coal which would have to burn each year. 

In order to react to earthslides in time, many slopes are constantly under seismological observation through the use of sensors.

The next morning, we anchor in Badong and see for the first time one of the relocated cities; also impressive is the 109 m high and 5 km long bridge.  Nothing from the old city is recognizable; everything in the city was completely removed to avoid uneven ground for ships.  Here is the mouth of the Shennong River, whose valley has no doubt become more attractive due to the artifical lake.

The river, which is around 60 km long, can now be travelled by ship for around 20 km.  The valley slopes are mostly still covered by original vegetation and are a home to monkeys and mountain gazelles.   Next to the Dragon Temple – which also had to be elevated due to the 3 Gorges Dam Project – we pass a huge cave which extends 8 km into the mountain.

The Shennong River is known not only for its narrow valley, but for the 2000 year old hanging coffins of 5.7 million people of Tujia nationality. The coffins are preserved in inaccesible locations in the rock walls.   In the provincial museum in Wanxian we had the chance to see an example of the coffins up close.  A coffin weighs around 400 kg and was always built to hold 2 persons.  Based on a genetic analysis of the deceased, we know that it was mostly always a young man with a somewhat older young woman to accompany him on his final journey.  These women had holes in their head areas, which show that a violent death can be assumed. 

At the final end of the navigable section of the river, Tujia wait for tourists in their peapod boats – as the soja bean boats are called – and take them in a traditional long-sail manner several hundred meters up the Shennong River.   Up to 1978, the Tujia men performed this task unclothed.   In this region lacking a strong infrastructure, tourist boating is surely a welcome additional income.  For tourists it is a welcome change after several days on the Yangze.

Returning to the Yangze, we were again in awe of the natural beauty, yet also witnessed the difficulties of the local population in barely managing to survive.   In the 3 Gorges Dam area, there are traditionally only three ways to make a living: either agriculture, fishing or coal mining.  Coal shafts are often located on high mountain cliffs and you can see the slag-heaps everywhere on the slopes.  It is certainly very difficult to mine coal by hand under these conditions.  Farming is not much better here either.  Often fields are located up to 1000 m high on the slopes.  In the dry season, water must be brought up from the river by foot.  Fishing also suffers from the changes brought about by the dam construction.  As a result, the government greatly tries to create replacement jobs for locals in large surrounding cities such as Chongqing. Tourism, above all Chinese tourism, plays a vital role here.  In fact, given the high dollar exchange, it is currently very attractive for Western tourists to book a cruise on the Yangze River. 

The steep cliffs are continually interspersed with huge caves such as the Wind Bags Cave, where people believe the wind originates.  Old coffins within this cave were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution.  Or we see the Seven Caves, containing the inscriptions of 700 soldiers which will soon sink forever into the water.

The next city is announced when one of 36 bridges spanning the Yangze comes into view. Most of these bridges were newly built as part of the relocation measures in order to strengthen the infrastructure.  Wushan is the starting point to the three little gorges.  This city was completely rebuilt at a higher elevation.  Wushan is know as the spot where several of the oldest fossils of early ape men were discovered. In addition, the ruins of the Daxi culture were discovered along the mouth of the 8 km long Qutang gorge.  Here the remains of a village stemming from the Early Stone Age were uncovered – a settlement 4000 to 6000 thousand years old.

The Qutang Gorge is the shortest but also the most beautiful of the three gorges.  The rock cliffs here are extremely steep.  Directly in the Kuimen Gateway we find the most famous calligraphy carved in stone in all of China.  The originals were completely removed from the cliffs and are to be displayed in a museum.  The calligraphy which can be viewed from the river are only copies.  The Kuimen is the highest mountain in the region and overlooks the extremely narrow passage between the Hubei and the province of Sichuan, and more recently Chongqing, which was separated from Sichuan.  Correspondingly, this section of the gorge is called the Kuimen Gateway. This eye of the needle through which the Yangze flows is pictured on Chinese currency. 

Baidicheng – the city of the White Emperor – will form a small island in the future once the river has reached its final elevation.

Fengjie was completed rebuilt. We can only still see the remains of the Old Town which is currently being carried away.  From the size of this city alone – a metropolis with 1 million inhabitants – we can begin to see the enormous logistical efforts which are behind the dam project.  Not all of the population was treated in the same way. Some villages had to relocate to completely different areas, some even to China’s southernmost island, Hainan.  In China there is a principle completely unknown in the West.  Only the state can own the ground and land.  Private ownership is restricted to the houses and structures built on the land.  If building activities are planned, private owners must be paid at least the same value but no one can block building plans by claiming ownership of the land.  This helps to explain the enormous speed of business in China.

Out in the country in some cases, you can still see traditional cemetaries. In cities today only cremations using urns is permitted.  

Wanxian, a city with a population of 1.25 million, has also been completely re-built. Here we had the opportunity to visit a typical Chinese market with daily food necessities such as meat, fresh vegetables and cooking ingredients.  We were particularly impressed by the treatment of patients on the open street using traditional Chinese medicine.  This type of treatment appears to be very popular, since it takes place with a great dash of humor.  The doctor treated a new patient every 30 seconds, which helps keep health costs down. 

The steep steps to the ship’s landing – simultaneously a washing place for laundry , or beating the laundry as the Chinese say, show us for a very brief time the true level of the river.

Back on the ship we had the opportunity to visit the ship’s engine room.  The Princess Elaine is part of a series of 12 ships that were built in the former East Germany for Volga River cruises.   Three were re-sold to China and are today among the best cruise ships on the Yangze.  So we were not really surprised to find an extremely clean and well-cared for engine room.  The noise made by the diesel engines was deafening, however.

While outside both old and new cities passed by, as did the idyllic landscape, it was easy to pass the time indoors.  In addition to descriptions of the various land regions, there were presentations on traditional Chinese medicine and cosmetics plus a series of cultural events which mainly provided us insight into the dances and cultures of the minority groups living in China.

The next highlight was the Shibaozhai Temple. It is 56 m high and is the highest traditional wooden structure in China.  Of the 13 storeys, 10 alone are stairways that lead to the actual temple.  When the artificial lake is completely filled, the water will exactly reach the foot of the temple.  As a result, a quay wall is being built around the rocks to allow ships to dock.  The rock itself will be an island emerging from the lake.

Again, we are allowed to visit the ship’s bridge and watch the complex work of the crew.

We were extraordinarily surprised around midnight, as the song “On the Beautiful Blue Danube“ came on and a Chinese pair danced waltzes perfectly.  We thought a lot of things were possible, but never Viennese waltzes on the Yangze River!