The Yangtze River and Three Gorges Dam

Each day was hazy but pleasant.  Every site along the river was spectacular.

The drunken bridge - no one could walk steadily on this swaying thing.

The Shibaozhai Temple.

I climbed every step of the Shibaozhai Temple.  This is the top window. 

A view of the drunken bridge from the top of the pagoda.

The gorges were splendidly beautiful.  I enjoyed my time on the windy deck watching the spectacular scenery and thinking about my brother, Kevin.

The scenery was reminiscent of National Geographic photos.

The boats and oarsmen are waiting to take us to the Shennong Stream.

The oarsmen are local farmers.  The youngest was 50 and the oldest 88.  They were all slender and solid muscle.  The oars are bamboo and the men had quite of system of rowing.  They also enjoyed pulling ahead of every other boat.  The stream wasn’t that wide so the process was entertaining for all.

We went through the five dam locks at night.  My photos were poor so I’ve included a daytime view of the first and second locks.  It takes 30+ minutes to go through a lock.  We only stayed awake for the first one.  At 2:00 AM my body said that was enough.

Three Gorges Dam is behind Rick.  This engineering wonder is the largest dam in the world and still very controversial.

The ship’s deck was always windy but the breathtaking scenes were worth it!!