Hi Everybody,

I hope all of you are well. I stayed up until 1:00 in the morning to see the first of five ship locks of the Three Gorges Dam. They were extremely interesting. We were so close to the wall that I could have touched the concrete of the dam while we were being lowered down. It was pretty awesome. Somehow, my mom slept through it all, but it was very loud until about 4:00 a.m., because that's how long it takes to make it through all five locks.

In the morning, we got up and toured the dam site. The construction of the Three Gorges Dam began in 1993, and will be fully completed in 2015. Right now it is 99% complete. Over 30,000 people were assigned to pour concrete for the dam itself. The people worked in three shifts and poured concrete 24 hours a day for 3,000 days! So far, 50 people have died during the construction of the dam, which is 1/3 of the number that died while constructing the Hoover Dam. Due to the amount of the electricity that the dam produces, people that receive the electricity from the dam pay only 6 U.S. cents per kilowatt hour. The Three Gorges Dam is five times the size of the Hoover Dam and could power 7 Las Vegas. There is an elevator being built for small boats, that will carry smaller boats up one side of the dam and down the other. This will save over three hours time for the smaller boats to make it through the dam. The dam is 1.4 miles long and 600 feet tall. Approximately 200 boats go through the dam per day. The rock around the dam is all granite. Twenty more dams are in the works for the Yangtze River, and it is predicted that the country will be running on 30% hydroelectric power in 15-20 years.

Our tour guide, Mark, was very funny. He said that if we get stuck in San Dou Ping, his parents will have us over for green tea. He said, "They will serve you two cups of green tea." "When they serve you the third cup, it means it's time to go home." Ha Ha. He is very proud of his town, San Dou Ping, which was totally rebuilt on higher ground in anticipation of the construction of the Three Gorges Dam. They rate their public bathrooms in China like we do hotels. Mark was very happy to tell us that San Dou Ping has a five star bathroom. Everytime, before I enter a restroom, I look to see what Star it is on a plaque they have displayed outside of the restroom. It seems to be fashionable to stand in the bathroom and smoke at the same time.

When we got back to our boat around 11:00. We set sail for a short time, before we entered the last of the Three Gorges, The Xiling Gorge. The Xiling Gorge was the only gorge unaffected by the Three Gorges Dam. That is because it is downstream from the dam itself. It used to be considered the most dangerous gorge due to the rapids, but in the 1950's another small dam was constructed farther down stream than the gorge. The scenery was spectacular.

After we disembarked from the boat, we ate a quick lunch in a sketchy restaurant in Yichang. When we were finished we left for the airport to catch our flight to Shanghai. Believe it or not, the airport was so small that it only had three gates. My mom sat right in front of a kid that had bronchitis or pneumonia, so she wore one of my dad's hazmat masks. :) Speaking of my dad, he's getting a really bad cold. That's a bummer.

We're spending three nights at the St. Regis Hotel in Shanghai. The hotel is beautiful. A large delegation is staying at our hotel starting tomorrow. For security purposes, they are blocking off certain floors so I don't know if I'll have access to a computer. The delegation is coming for the World Expo. We have a very busy day tomorrow. We leave at 9:00 a.m. and finish with an acrobatic show in the evening. If I can, I'll blog tomorrow and tell you how it was. Hopefully, you enjoyed today's post.

Bye, Tony

P.S. Typhoon Megi is on course to land near or to the west of Hong Kong on Friday. That is the day that we're supposed to go to Hong Kong. Hopefully, the weather people are wrong. I'll be in touch. Don't worry, Ritz will take care of us.