Three Gorges Dam

This is odd, trailing what we've been actually doing by a couple of days, but I'm endeavoring to catch up.

We visited the dam after the cruise ended. Even pictures can't give a sense for how mammoth this thing is. The Yangtze is a huge river, and to put a 600 foot tall dam in it is audacious at the very least. The Chinese government has talked about damming the river for a century. The area upstream from the dam has had catastrophic floods on a regular basis throughout history, and navigation through the gorges was famously treacherous. The navigation problems have certainly been solved, though nobody really knows whether the flooding will be eliminated. In any event, they've moved most everyone out of the flood plain, like it or not.

As for the environmental effects, I'm sure the fish are happily engaged learning new living habits, and they also don't really know what's going to happen to the tons of silt that the river carries. The official story is that there are sluices that will allow passage of the silt, but that really seems impossible. I can't imagine it's not going to take constant dredging. Anyway, it's there, like it or not, and it's expected to generate 5% of the power needs of the country, which considering how bad the air is here, should be of some benefit.

I'll post a couple of pictures later, but they can't capture the scale.

After the dam, we visited a sturgeon farm, where they are attempting to keep alive the sturgeon that would normally swim up the Yangtze to spawn. Fish ladders were too expensive, so they've built a hatchery and breeding center where they keep the sturgeon until they can fend for themselves in the ocean. The place is surreal. It could not be dingier if it answered a casting call for dingy spots. The tanks, which look bright and pristine in the introductory video, are algae-covered and dark. I guess they're big enough for the sturgeon to swim around some, but I have no idea. Very odd that they would show such a thing off.

Off then to the airport and on to Shanghai.