Day 11 of embracing china

On Friday morning, we have to rise and shine at 6am to meet the rest of the people at 7. Our destination was the three gorges. 3 days 2 nights of cruise. People, in case you have no idea what the three gorges is, it is a dam along the Yangtze river and is said to be famous for its beautiful scenery. Anyways i was quite excited about it as it had been a long time since i last went on a cruise. Mr Wong also said that its a local 4 star cruise, so it can't be that bad. Thats an bonus for me, 4 star! So we have to take this long 5 hrs bus ride to Yichang which is another city in the Hubei province. Man was it tiring. the whole journey left us feeling so lethargic. Lucky for us, once we reached Yichang, it was lunch time! Lunch was awesome. One of the better restaurants i've had since i've been here. And so. after lunch we continued with another 1hr of bus ride to the three gorges.

The model room. It shows the overview of the dam.

Its so unbelievably huge

I wish, i can jump right into the water. Or go sailing?

Forever having group photos. haha.

Thats where we can get a better view of the dam

Oh no, the ships are trapped! just kidding.

And then, we took this free shuttle bus to a nearby area which is sort of like a museum cum park. They exhibit the constructions of the dam and also how the conditions were like when they were building it. Also, the equipments that are being used when building.

Thats the entrance



Haha, the BIGGEST bulldozer i've ever seen.

rock much?

Dry ice were used to depict the scene
The rocks were used to block out the water from gushing in when they were building.

I was praying damn hard the water won't stop suddenly

artistic exhibit. no?

Candid

After sightseeing, we were ushered to get on board the cruise. It was around evening when we boarded. Man, the ship was not what i expected. When Mr Wong said it was a local 4 star, i think to Singapore standards it's 2 or 3 star? haha. I'm not complaining much thou. It's better than living in squatters. Anyways, the most amazing part was when the ship is docked right, the flushing and heating system won't work. And i have the tinest suspicion that there isn't any reception too? However the good thing is that after the ship travels for 30 minutes then, it will work. Thou, it isn't working very well too! haha.

MeiYun and my room =)

The ship's lobby. We act only!

No prizes for guessing whose idea for the poses. haha

So, after travelling for quite some time, we have to pass through this dam. Because the water level at each area is different so in order for the cruise to get to the next area, the ship has to be lifted up. Okay here is how it works: First, you have to queue up to get into it. I think, the maximum is 3 ships that can stay in there? Then, when you get into it, they will close the gates. So you're like stuck in an enclosure. After which, they will pump in water to get the ships to float up to the next level of river whereby they will slowly open up the gates at the other end of the enclosure to let you out.

I think, it's seriously an eye opening experience. I've never seen anything so cool before. I mean, how do they even think of such an ingenious idea.


See the narrow passage? the ships are supposed to get in there.


And then, they closed the other side of the gate and water comes in.
I took this picture when we're nearing the top.

By the way, its 5 storeys high of water level.


We have reached the top! The gate is slowly opening to let us out.

And now we're floating to a higher water stream!

Blow, wind blow


You can't tell but it's actually freezing cold out here.

The rest went in after taking a group photo!

And so, because i was still so amazed by the earlier episode of "floating" i wanted to see more! haha. There's actually like five more gates to pass through. But then, i only stayed awake long enough to witness one more. This time, it was a bigger gate whereby the enclosure can fit up to 8 ships.


I love pretty lights on pretty bridge

They are all queuing up to get pass the gate

Finally, our turn! See, this was much bigger than the previous one.

And so, it was around 2am when we went into the enclosure. We were all so cold and tired thus we couldn't stand watching the whole process. Right after the gates closed, all of us went to hit the sack. =)