(Mary Beth Sheridan / Washington Post)
Posted on 02/10/2008 7:39:51 AM PST by JACKRUSSELL
China has done its best to ruin the scenery on the Yangtze River. Smog blots out the sun. Factories dot the shores. And the construction of a giant dam has flooded the Three Gorges, the famed river passage through towering limestone and sandstone cliffs.
And yet, one afternoon last spring, a friend and I were staring in quiet wonder from a cruise ship sailing up the Yangtze. We were in a world of green, gliding past cliffs covered in rain-slicked trees and bamboo bushes. Slender waterfalls churned into the jade-colored river.
"It is really beautiful. I can only imagine what it would be like on a clear, blue-sky day," said my friend, Maria Ines. "But even like this, it's magical."
Since 2003, the massive Three Gorges Dam near Yichang has plugged China's largest river. That created a reservoir expected to gradually fill over six years, driving up water levels more than 350 feet. Many people fear the ruin of one of China's iconic landscapes.
By the time we arrived at the Yangtze, about three-quarters of the flooding had occurred. More than 1,000 towns and hamlets had been submerged.
And yet, the Three Gorges were still stunning.
"Of course it's disappointing" that so many villages are gone, said Raynor Shaw, a geologist and author of Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. But, with the mountains soaring more than 3,000 feet, "it's still a gorgeous place."
The Yangtze is no typical cruise experience. The river offers a panorama of beauty and ugliness, old China and new. We'd float through bucolic terraced farmlands, only to round a bend and confront 30-story office towers wrapped in gauzy haze......
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
(Mary Beth Sheridan / Washington Post)
I would look into China’s heart, but it’s too dark, and it scares me.
Joseph Conrad already wrote a story about this. LOL.
LOL...it’s spreading!
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