The Yangtze is 6,300 kilometers, less in length only to the Amazon and the Nile, picking up different names as it winds through nine provinces to the East China Sea. The Tibetans call it Dri Chu or Female Yak River, but the Han Chinese in the area call it Tongtian He or Traveling Through the Heavens River. As it snakes through Sichuan and Yunnan provinces it is known as Jinsha Jiang or Golden Sand River. Further along it is referred to as Chang Jiang (Long River) or, sometimes, Wanli Chang Jiang, Ten Thousand Li River. Only near its end is it known by its most common name, the Yangtze.
For centuries the Yangtze has served China’s transport and commercial needs. A quarter of the country’s ocean going cargo enters the river between Shanghai and the sea, navigating upriver as far as Yichang, 1,600 kilometers from the sea. All that will change with the completion of the Three Gorges Dam project in 2009, when vessels up to 10,000 tons can sail all the way in to Chongqing for several months of the year.
Every year the Yangtze deposits over 170 million cubic meters of silt into a large fertile plain that is used to grow rice, the world’s single most important food crop that is primary food for almost half of the world’s population. The Yangtze also provides crucial irrigation to the surrounding agricultural lands, ensuring abundant harvests for China’s teeming population.
The Yangtze also goes through some of China’s most beautiful and dramatic scenery, notably the fabled Three Gorges, which are still magnificent despite initial flooding (currently up to 135 meters, and up to 156 meters by next year) with the completion of the first phases of the dam project. All along the river are signs proclaiming "175 M", indicating the height to which the waters will rise once the dam is completed in 2009.
But the Yangtze is also a great destructive force, with devastating floods resulting in a million deaths in the 20th century alone. This is one of the main reasons the Chinese government is undertaking the dam project.
Thus one must approach the Yangtze with a good amount of respect, and the invitation from Panda Tours to sail down the Yangtze and the Three Gorges as well as the dam project could not be passed up. I had often heard my mother speak of the Yangtze and the Three Gorges, and heard the common saying "If you haven’t traveled up the mighty Yangtze you haven’t been anywhere." This, then, was one of those "must" journeys.
We board Victoria Cruises’ MV Katarina at Chongqing after dinner for her nine o’clock sailing. The Katarina is the newest vessel plying the Chongqing-Three Gorges-Yichang route (there is also the reverse upstream trip, as well as one that goes beyond Yichang to Nanjing and Shanghai) that takes three days and three nights.
Though not quite a full service cruise ship, accommodations are first class, each cabin with its own balcony. A well-equipped gym, beauty salon and massage room, reading room and bar and a roof deck where one can fully appreciate the majesty of the gorges occupy one’s time while on the ship. Onboard activites include informative lectures, tai chi classes, demonstrations on accupuncture, pearl culture and kite flying, and after dinner shows participated in by the multi-talented crew.
Buffet meals feature Chinese as well as international fare that ranges from lasagna to dumplings, fried rice to pastrami. The attempt at serving a safe, international menu takes a definite dive though when tea comes from Lipton teabags instead of the fine tea China is famous for.
But such minor irritations can easily be ignored considering the exhilarating experience of sailing down the Yangtze. The scene as we sail away from a glimmering Chongqing at night is enchanting.
Our first shore excursion the next morning is to the 220-meter Shibaozhai, a nine-storey pavilion built in 1662 during the Qing Dynasty. The wooden structure with glazed tiles and red walls does not use a single iron nail, and literally cleaves to the sheer cliff.
It is not too difficult a climb up the first nine storeys, dedicated to famous generals of the Three Kingdoms, local scholars and poets; the last three storeys–added in 1956–is a more challenging climb, but the view from the top of generations-old terraced farms and the distant mountains is breathtaking.
At the top of the hill is Ganyu Palace, where resides a large, aged salamander, and if you can cross the stone bridge over its hole in three strides, your wish will be granted–or so the guide says.
It is a much easier walk down, particularly since stalls line both sides of the paths selling everything from brocade jackets to antique spectacles to the usual t-shirts and souvenirs. I find a very useful official map of China, a great buy at 10 yuan, but I do regret passing up an antique vanity box.
Before noon we enter the first of the gorges. River guides point out rock formations along the way, some of them quite famous such as Goddess Peak, but like all natural formations, one sees as much as one’s imagination will allow. Whether one agrees with the descriptions given or not, there is no argument that the gorges are an amazing sight, by day from the time the sun peeks out over the mist-shrouded cliffs, reflecting pure gold on the river, to the looming ghostly shapes at dusk and evening.
The Qutang Gorge is the smallest and shortest at only eight kilometers, but it is often the most memorable because it gives tourists their first glimpse of this famous landmark. But Qutang has a lot to boast about aside from the sheer cliffs and rapid waters. On its scenic shores are the Meng Liang Staircase and the Seven Gate Cave, and coffins set in high crevices that contained bronze swords and armor from the Warring States Period. Holes bored into the cliff sides once held supports for an ancient Plank Road.
Our second shore excursion brings us to Wushan or Witches Mountain, a town that has existed since the latter part of the Shang Dynasty around 1027 BC. It is the starting point for the boat trip through the Lesser Gorges on the Daning River. Here the water is a deep emerald and the air is a lot cooler. The first of these "lesser" gorges is known as Dragon Gate Gorge. Colorful birds flit and sing among the lush growth on both sides; monkeys frolic on the banks. Costumed locals, positioned on the cliffs by the local tourist bureau, sing plaintive folk tunes, their clear voices echoing among the cliffs that soar up to 1,000 meters.
In the Misty Gorge can be seen a 2,000-year-old wooden coffin belonging to the ancient Ba people suspended on a precipice high up on the cliff face. There used to be hundreds of these coffins throughout the gorges and the Daning River, relics of the ancient Ba people who lived in the area over 3,000 years ago.
The Emerald Green Gorge is true to its name, with lush bamboo groves and vegetation. The boat ride downstream back to Wushan is a lot faster, and our boatman cheerfully sings us a love song.
The Xiling Gorge is the longest and deepest of the three gorges, often shrouded in mists and perilous with whirlpools and rapids. At the end of this gorge is the site of the dam, a magnificent work of man rivaling the magnificence of nature, daring in its vision, definitely controversial, on which the government of China has staked its reputation as an economic power of the 21st century.
The numbers are mind-boggling enough. A construction project that will take 15 years and over $30 billion to build, the Three Gorges Dam will create a reservoir hundreds of meters deep and 400 miles long containing five trillion gallons of water. It will be the world’s largest hydroelectric power plant, with 26 turbines that will generate up to 85 billion kilowatt hours a year, equivalent to electricity generated by 18 nuclear power plants. The dam is also expected to control the destructive floods that have plagued the region for millennia.
The idea of a dam on the mighty Yangtze was first brought up in 1919 by Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China. Mao Zedong in his time proposed the idea of "surprising the goddess of Wu Gorge by creating a huge man-made lake between the deep canyons".
The great expectations surrounding the dam project is matched by the amount of controversy and protest both from within China and abroad. 632 square kilometers of land–over 100 towns–will be inundated and an estimated 1.2 million people–some say the figure is closer to 2 million–will be displaced, and farmlands will be lost. In addition, countless archeological and historical sites as well as marine species such as the Chinese sturgeon, finless porpoise and baiji dolphin will be lost or otherwise adversely affected.
The debates will rage endlessly, but there is no stopping the project now. As 25,000 workers work around the clock to finish the project, the Chinese government and its people–as well as the rest of the world–can only hope that this monumental work of man will stand the tests of time and nature.