Three Gorges Cruise: Day Three

Today was an action-packed day. It started at 5:30 am; my dad and I paid some extra money to visit Baidi Cheng (White Emperor City) to get a view of the first gorge. We learned a lot about the history of the city, as well as how it's changed since the new dam was built. Since most of you probably do not know, the Chinese government built the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzte River to produce electricity. However once the dam was built, it raised the water level almost 170 meters. Therefore, it drowned out a lot of villages and people had to relocate. After we got back from visiting Baidi Cheng, the boat moved through the first gorge. It was definitely very humbling traveling through the narrow river with enormous mountains on either side. It is unlike anything I have ever seen. The feeling was almost as if we were in an imaginary place straight out of a poem or painting. In reality, some of the most famous poems were written about this area of the Three Gorges. Once we got past the first gorge, we stopped to get onto a smaller boat which took us to the Lesser Three Gorges. The mountains seemed even taller, because we were on a smaller boat. After about an hour and a half, we got on to even smaller motor boats and visited the Mini Three Gorges. This was probably my favorite part, because we were very close to the water and right up to the mountains. After this four hour long excursion, we entered the second gorge. This gorge is famous for three mountains (which are shown below): Goddess Mountain, Caps Mountain, and Scissors Mountain. There was so much to see today that it was hard to process all of it. I don't think I can put it any other way; the views were simply amazing.

First Gorge (Top View):


First Gorge (Boat View):


Lesser Gorge (Sleeping Beauty):


Lesser Gorge (Buddha Mountain):


Mini Gorge:


Goddess Mountain (Look carefully for the little rock on the top that looks like a woman. Follow the rock that looks like two fingers down to the right and you'll see a little tiny rock jutting out):


Caps Mountain (it looks like a cap):


Scissors Mountain: