The Three Little Gorges (三峡)
& Shibaozhai (石宝寨)
The Three Little Gorges are located about 7 km from Fengjie (奉節). I joined a tour boat and rode up the Danning River (但寧江) to these incredibly beautiful gorges, which will be completely submerged when the Three Gorges Dam is completed in 2003. The ride up alternated with walk through poor (and sometimes gratuitous tourist traps).
-- Eric Trachtenberg
The Three Little Gorges:
The ride up the Little Gorges ends with a walk across the river on a suspension bridge.
The Three Gorges -- Bai Di Cheng 白帝城:
Near Fengjie (奉節). During the Han Dynasty/漢代 (200 BC - 200 AD), a pretender to the throne founded this city called White God City when he supposedly saw a white tiger appear out of nowhere.
Shibaozhai:
Returning to the Changjiang. On the river, crops were grown along the river which provides water and nutrients. When peasants are moved up the hills to avoid the rising water, they will find it much more difficult to stay in farming. They will join the millions of their countrymen who fill the riverboats destined for the cities -- and hopefully a better life.
The city of Shibaozhai is a 30 meter high rock that looks like a stone seal. The this 11-story high temple dates from the reign of the Emperor Qianlong/乾隆 (1739-97).
A street in Shibaozhai -- a place so remote that people did not even recognize their own money! In the coastal cities like Shanghai, they use coins for lower denominations. In this village, they refused the coins and only accepted the (older) paper money and claimed the coins were fake!
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Pictures: Eric Trachtenberg
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