Xian, Chongqing, and The Three Gorges

I have left the Capital to venture to the interior of China. About 15 years ago the Central Chinese government initiated a " Develop the West" campaign (of coarse referring to western china, which has primarily been rural communities.)

One of These Western Towns is Xi'an, which was an ancient capital of China from roughly 1000 BC to 1000 AD. spanning from the Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty. In that age, it was the terminus point of the Silk Road and was the capital of cultural exchange and commerce in Ancient China.

Though Chinese dynasties date back thousands of years, the earliest recorded history in china is referred to the warring states period. It was not until the Qin Dynasty that all of China was united into one Empire, and thus Qin Shi Hung was the first emperor in 221 BC. It was this emperor, who was responsible for developing one united written language of China, that ordered the construction of the Terra cotta Army just east of Xi'an in his mausoleum. Very interesting how they were rediscovered in 1974 .

Farther to the south is the city of Chongqing. This inland mega city has reached a population of 32 million people, the largest municipality in China by sq km and total population ( though not the most dense). This has only become possible because of the construction of the three gorges damn and the new found ability to get large shipments up stream along the Yangtze.

The Three Gorges Dam Project may well have been the largest construction project undertaken in mankind history. Not only is it the largest Hydro-electric plant in the world, but the damming of the Yangtze river ( third largest river behind the the Nile and the Amazon ) caused the water level to rise 60 m (more the 180 ft.) for Hundreds of miles along the banks. The project displaced more than 1 million people in rural communities and relocated them to "new towns" built along the river at higher elevations above the new flood plain. Miles and miles or retaining walls and engineered embankment's. This placed all the old villages, some more than 500 years old, under water.

The region of the three gorges and the lesser three gorges is of gorgeous natural beauty. Traditional Chinese paintings, with its mountain tops and misty valleys were clearly inspired by this place. But the Chinese government ordered that these rural communities, which are based on close a connection to the river, change their traditional lifestyle to fit in to a high rise building that is completely void of the nature that they have grown to rely on.

I'm glad to have witnessed this Yangtze's river valley. I found it important and valuable to witness the "less publicly known" side of china, and see first had the immense scale of the three Gorge Project. The group I was travelling with organized a couple hours to visit an elementary school to interact with local children of the rural community. It's things like this that remind people how much we all have in common.