CHONGQING and Three Gorges

Chongqing is another huge city that no one outside of China has heard of, even though the greater Chongqing area consists of 30 million people.  The city center has a large pedestrian area, comprised of upscale shops (Zegna, Gucci, Boss, etc.), great restaurants, and a pretty impressive nightlife (we arrived on a Sunday, and were shocked to find some of the bars and discos still rocking at 2am).

While Chengdu had a decent number of Western travelers, the few Westerners we encountered in Chongqing were English teachers.  Among them is Matt (pictured below), who showed us around the university.

This guy (right) looked even more out of place than I did, so I took pity on him.

The Three Gorges

We left Chongqing on a cruise down the Yangzi River to Yichang, seeing the Three Gorges.   Despite the fact that we shared a cabin the size of a closet in a boat crammed with 300 non-English speakers, the cruise was fun and interesting.  The sights in this area of China are, unfortunately, perpetually obscured by fog.

Three Gorges Dam.  The Three Gorges Dam is a monumental undertaking, intended to channel economic growth into the less developed western regions.  When operational in 2009, it will generate the power of 18 nuclear reactors and be the largest dam in the world.   It will also flood an area the size of Singapore, submerge 8000 important archaeological sites, wash away the homes of two million people, and effectively create a 480 km-long septic tank.  If the dam burst (however unlikely), the city of Yichang (population six million) would be obliterated within an hour.  (Incidentally, a dam in Henan province collapsed in 1975, killing 230,000 people, but this was kept a “state secret” for 20 years).  It’s already $70 billion over budget, and hundreds of millions of dollars set aside for those being dislocated has disappeared (93 government officials have been imprisoned and one executed in response to this corruption).  For these reasons and more, international groups of economists, engineers, and environmentalists have overwhelmingly condemned the plan.  Yet if a Chinese local said what I just wrote in public, he or she would be sent to prison for around ten months.

The boat dropped us off at Wuhan, where we spent two nights.  Wuhan has nine million people, but virtually no travelers and a significant language barrier problem.  We were, however, able to snap one amusing photo.