The ship sails along at a pleasant 25 KMH and I awoke at 0530!！Headed up to the Yangtze Club for early bird cup of tea and to admire the view as we started our way through the first of the 3 major gorges- Xiling Gorge。Beautiful，peaceful streams and caves to enjoy before heading to breakfast at 0800 where I met my dining companions for the tour- 2 Germans and 6 fellow Aussies!！We docked at Sandouping before going ashore to inspect the incredible 3 Gorges Dam – the largest hydroelectric project in the world。 It is an understatement to call it massive。 For the technically minded the dam is 2335 metres long，185 metres high，130 metres wide at the bottom and 18 metres wide at the top。The reservoir created by the dam has a storage capacity of 39.9 billion cubic metres of water。During winter the water reaches 175 metres – approximately 110 metres above the original river level- but never fear the Chinese Government fixed that issue. The creation of the reservoir necessitated the flooding of 570,000 hectares of farmland, 1000s of villages and a number of small cities and towns in an area that affected 19 counties and districts….never mind the relocation of over 1.3M people!! Needless to say there is still an enormous amount of controversy surrounding the project

Back to the ship for lunch and then the afternoon was spent going through the 5 locks of the dam. Interesting for the technically minded….boring for those of us who spent the afternoon having a few quiet beverages looking at very close concrete walls!! One of my fellow Aussies actually kissed the wall…the rest of us settled for putting a hand on it – after all it's not the Blarney Stone!! Once through the locks we got to view the western side of Xiling Gorge.

This evening we got to meet fellow passengers and the ship’s crew at the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail Party complete with champagne and nibbles. Then off to dinner and to end the night a Dynasties and Minority Costume Show which was fantastic. Unfortunately I don’t think my photos do justice to the wonderful costumes.