Currently the mighty Yang Tze, China's largest river, is home to the construction project that will ultimately be the largest dam in the world. The project itself is an engineering marvel as well as the social costs. Over a million people up river from the dam have had to be relocated to higher ground. Homes have been dismantled, historic buildings have been moved to higher ground, and fields have been lost in the name of progress and energy demand. The dam is mostly completed and by the end of next year the river will rise to a depth of 175 meters. It currently is at about 140. We took a boat cruise down the river. Interesting as the tour guide sold it as the foreigners cruise, but there were about 6 foreigners on the cruise. The rest were Chinese. I had ample opportunity to practice my Chinese and many were patient with helping me learn and understand. We definitely had and opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture as well. While on the cruise we chose to partake in three side trips, two of which included Chinese performances of music and dancing. These were interesting, but the music was way to loud. It is interesting to see the costumes of various time periods of Chinese history. The other side trip and most stunning was a cruise through the Lesser of Three Gorges. It was beautiful with touring cliffs on both sides of the small boat were were in. I can only imagine how much larger the cliffs must have felt before some of the water has risen.
