May Holiday - Chongqing, Yangtze River Cruise and Wuhan

For the May holiday we went on a Yangtze river cruise. We cruised downstream so it was 3 nights. We started in Chonqing - the fastest growing city on earth according to some reports.

Just one of many absurd construction projects. The cityscape is like something from a science fiction film.

But there are still pockets of calm in the mayhem where the old uns go to dance.

The impressive Peoples Hall, modelled on the Temple of Heaven in Beijing.

You can pay 5 RMB to go in, and sleep if you wish.

Aytun with a typical chemical sunset in her hands

A warning to any errant men out there....Moral propaganda, Buddhist style

Some views from the boat.....

Heading into the first Gorge. This is the pic on the 10 RMB note.

The 175m sign shows how high the water will rise to when the 3 Gorges Dam is finished in 2009. Anything below that mark will be submerged and much already has been. People have been relocated - 1.3 million in all. Over a thousand villages have been submerged and countless cultural relics have gone. Some have been preserved, others have been looted or simply lost.

These men are 'trackers' and used to work to pull boats up fast flowing sections. Now they pull tourists in boats to show what they used to do. They also used to it naked as recently as 1991.

The massive doors of the 4 stage ship lock part of the immense 3 gorges dam. It will be 5 stages when the flood waters reach their final height.

The whole process drops the boats about 100 metres and takes about 4 hours.

The 3 Gorges Dam. It's 1.4 miles long, not that you can see that far.

A daytime view of the ship lock

Our cabin

The downstream side of the dam. A prestige project for the Chinese government it's actual longterm impact - positive or negative is hard to tell. It will reduce in China's dependency on coal, but at what cost to the Yangtze and it's surroundings is unknown. It's astonishing to see though.