Chongqing & Yangzi River

After Emei Shan we headed back to Chengdu for a night, and then were out the next day for Chongqing. Chongqing is just another big city in China, and in all honesty not one we found very appealing. The locals seem to like it, because it is essentially a new city and in the middle of a significant boom. There are 15 million people crammed into this place which is heavily under construction and situated beside the muddy Yangzi river. From here, and pretty much since we have yet to escape the smog which seems to be trapped close to the surface. Al Gore wouldn't be too happy, as their coal burning power plants are clearly in full swing... The best part about Chongqing though, was that we managed to acquire 4 of our very own personal tour guides! We met one of the girls (Zhang Sin - in the white) at the train station on arrival as she had been on the same train. She is a student in University (as well as her friends) and wanted to practice her English. They more or less adopted us for the 1 night and following day we were in town to see the sites in Chongqing and helped us arrange our river trip to Yichang. They were a crazy foursome, and it made our stay in a brutal city one of the highlights of our trip in China. Seriously, we can just talk about these zainy girls and still crack up about their 4 very different and all equally interesting/funny personalities. They were incredibly helpful, we can't say enough about them.In the end we opted out of a slow boat (cruise ship) down the Yangzi river which would have taken 3-4 days. We settled for the high speed option to see the 3 gorges which will soon be under water due to a the worlds biggest damn which is being built near Yichang.

Side note: The dam is a controversial project that will displace nearly 2 million people from their homes, flood an area bigger than Singapore, yet at the same time produce a ton of electricity. Once it's construction is complete it will produce enough electricity that it will equal 18 nuclear power plants. When you see the thing, it is pretty impressive. The infrastructure of power lines alone is enough to make you want to put on a lead helmet.

Here is a view entering one of the 3 gorges passing underneath what I thought was pretty cool looking bridge. Gives you a bit of a glance at the speed boat (hydrofoil) we travelled on. The view from the roof was great, but take it from me, the crew isn't happy when a person climbs up there...
Another bridge... China is full of them! The view was okay, but as you can see the smog I was talking about is present even here.A small house/farm which will have to be vacated when the dam is finished I am sure.