Day 4 - Sandouping

After our first night on the ship, we woke up still in port in Yichang.  The fog was so thick it made the river so eerie!

After a delayed start, we said through the Xiling Gorge in route to the Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric dam. Due to the dam being built, many cities had to be relocated more than 300-400 feet above where they were originally placed.  The towns were completely demolished before dam was created so boat traffic would not have any problems in the river.

We saw many farms along the river.  Since the sides of the mountains were super steep, the farmers plant their crops on terraces.

We arrived in Sandouping, the home of the dam which currently has 26 operational generators with 6 more still under construction.  The dam created a resevoir over 400 miles long and supplies about 10% of China's total power need.

We took an excursion for a closer look at the dam.

From the top of the overlook, you could get a good view of the lock system.

Around dinner time we entered the locks and it took us almost 4 hours to go through them.  The system, which includes 5 locks, raises the water level a total of 375 feet.