China - Shanghai - First Impressions

Thursday, 2 May 2019

A number of striking buildings could be seen from the bus on our way from the airport to our hotel in the French Concession area of Shanghai.

The China Art Museum is housed in the China Pavilion of Expo 2010.

The Shanghai Mercedes-Benz Arena - another Expo 2010 building.

The Shanghai Museum.

The Shanghai Exhibition Center is a Soviet-style building that was originally built as the "Palace of Sino-Soviet Friendship". The Stalinist style is straight out of Moscow (day, night).

Many highways criss-cross Shanghai.

Major intersections frequently feature an elevated pedestrian "roundabout" that gets pedestrians out of the traffic.

Our hotel was in the French Concession, and our room looked east towards Pudong.

The night view was equally spectacular.

China - Flight to Shanghai

Thursday, 2 May 2019

I know I take way too many photos when I have a window seat, but I really find the landscape fascinating from 35,000 ft.

Agricultural lands with lots of small fields and water reservoirs.

Dams and reservoirs.

Downtown Shanghai. Pudong is on the right side of the river.

These new apartment blocks on the outskirts of Shanghai look like toy blocks or "SimCity".

More new apartment blocks as we neared the Shanghai airport.

China - Yangtze River - Three Gorges Dam

Thursday, 2 May 2019

Today we departed our ship early in the morning. Cruise ships are no longer allowed to go through the locks at the Three Gorges Dam - there are already too many freight ships for the locks to handle. Before heading to the Yichang airport, we got a look at the Three Gorges Dam. The dam was not nearly as impressive as I expected it to be. It's also difficult to see.

When departing the ship, we had the luxury of incline cars as an alternative to walking up over 140 steps with our carry-on luggage.

The dam as seen from the top of the cruise ship dock.

The double set of five locks that raise/lower ships 370 feet. It takes a ship about 3 hours to get through all five locks.

The reservoir side of the dam as seen from the viewing area.

In addition to the locks, there is a "ship lift" that can raise a small ship (less than 25 m, 80 ft) directly. It is much faster than using the locks, but it was not in operation when we were there, so we didn't get to see it in action.

The cruise ship dock as seen from the dam viewing area. It's difficult to tell, but there is a total of five ships moored here. The center ship is actually three ships side-by-side.

China - Yangtze River - Goddess Stream

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

About a third of the way through the Wu Xia, we took an excursion on small boats on the "Goddess Stream", a small tributary that flows through a narrow gorge into the Yangtze across the river from the Goddess peak.

The stream is a narrow channel, but filled with tourist boats. Each boat can seat about 20 passengers.

From time to time this sort of cave-like "flowstone" formation was found along crevices in the gorge walls.

In places the channel was so narrow that only one boat at a time could navigate the waters.

Boats going single file through a narrow passage.

More narrow passages.

There's not much room to maneuver.

In a few places, domestic goats paid no attention as we passed by.

Goddess peak as we returned to our ship.

China - Yangtze River - Wu Xia

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

Immediately after lunch we started through the second, longer gorge, the Wu Xia. It is 28 miles (45 km) long.

The start of the Wu Xia at Wushan.

A tributary entering the gorge at Wushan, just before the bridge.

The gorge gets quite narrow.

The scenery changes with each bend in the river.

Steep mountains surround the gorge.

Depth markers along the steep shores.

Highly contorted limestone sediments on the cliff-like banks of the river.

One of the criticisms of the Three Gorges Dam project is that the limestone base and the fluctuating water level has led to frequent landslides. We saw many attempts to stabilize the steep sides. Here the landslides are covered with a blue-green fabric that was widely used at construction sites throughout China to keep down the dust.

Slope stabilization with anchors into the rock.

Large retaining walls.

Domestic goats didn't seem to mind the steep terrain.

About a third of the way through the gorge is the "Goddess", a small rock pillar.

A closer look at the Goddess rock formation.

Looking back up the gorge from the base of Goddess peak.

China - Yangtze River - Qutang Xia

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

Just before lunch we went through the Qutang Xia (gorge). This is the shortest of the three gorges, about 5 miles (8 km) long.

A new bridge is under construction at the beginning of the gorge.

The river gets quite narrow as we enter the gorge.

There's a lot of river traffic, but the ships are dwarfed by the surrounding mountains.

A walkway along the sheer wall of the gorge. The underlying rock is limestone, and a number of small caves are visible.

Looking back at the gorge after getting into the wider part of the Yangtze.

Looking back at the significant river traffic through the gorge.

China - Yangtze River - Fengjie

Wednesday, 1 May 2019

We passed the industrial city of Fengjie just before entering the first gorge, Qutang Xia.

Even when not in one of the three gorges, the Yangtze River is lined with mountains (and smog).

Coming into Fengjie.

Fengjie is at the left, and the bridge across the Yangtze in the center is the start of Qutang Xia.

Fengjie, or more accurately New Fengjie, since this city was relocated from a flooded site.

A closer view of the pagoda barely visible on the mountaintop just right of center in the previous photo.

It appeared the this industrial site just outside Fengjie had been abandoned, but maybe it was just shut down for the long May Day holiday.

On deck as we pass Fengjie and prepare to enter the first gorge. The wind was brisk and relentless.