I’m not sure how I missed the fact that the main attraction of the cruise we took was not the Three Gorges Dam but the Three Gorges. And I’m glad I didn’t realize how incredibly beautiful it would be because I loved the surprise!
The most famous part of the trip was at the end when we could turn around and see the mountains that were pictured on one side of the 10-yuan bill. Ruby had brought a bill to facilitate the picture. I’m glad because I hadn’t even realized that’s what we were coming to see! Sometimes knowing nothing leads to delightful surprises.

We spent the morning on a boat following a tributary to the Yangtze River. It was misty or raining outright for most of the ride, and I wondered at the audacity of the weather—presuming to rain on such a beautiful place.
But I think part of the beauty of that boat ride was the rain. The mist hung low over the mountains, giving it a magical feeling. Lots of poets lived around this area. The towns and villages claimed poets like Li Bai, Da Fu, and others that I forgot their names. Ruby and I agreed that the place lent itself very well to poets. I wanted to write a poem myself even though I’m not much of a poet, but I couldn’t quite find the words to describe it. Perhaps it was also because I didn’t spend quite enough time quietly observing. Most of the time I was listening to tour guides or taking pictures with Ruby or enjoying the scenery surrounded by dozens of other people who were taking pictures and pointing out things I was supposed to be seeing—like coffins in the karsts.
I have to admit that when a lady rushed up and told me to look at something in the karst, I thought she must surely have learned the wrong English word. But later I learned that there are still English words that I don’t know, and a karst is (according to Merriam-Websters), a “limestone region with sinkholes, underground streams, and caverns.”
So I didn’t have enough mental space to sit and think about a poem of the mists hanging over the mountains. Another time I write poetry is in the middle of the night if I can’t sleep, but our days were so busy, that I rarely had any trouble on that account, which I suppose is a blessing.










After our morning boat adventure, we had a bit of time to relax in our room before an announcement alerted us that we were passing through some beautiful areas and we really should go up and look at them. I didn’t really like having announcements in my room, but this time I was glad that I took the crew’s advice and went up on deck. Our boat cruised along through the mountains that rose up on both sides of the river. I had been enjoying the view from the balcony, but up on deck, we could see much more.
At first, we had to look over people’s heads to see out, but pretty soon people drifted off to other areas and Ruby and I found a place at the railing to gaze out at the passing scenery. A voice in a microphone explained what we were seeing. He talked about the temples and the water levels and the people that lived just on the other sides of the mountains, out of sight but still there. He told us when we passed from Hubei to Chongqing, and I was excited to be in another province even though I wasn’t technically on land.
The temples and pagodas were fascinating. Many of them were built on peaks and I couldn’t see how it was possible to build anything there, but the buildings stood there, testaments to the perseverance of people. And while those buildings were impressive, they were nothing to the majesty of the mountains all around us. People build incredible things because we are following the example of our incredible Master Designer.
I wish our boat could have gone slower. I wish we could have slowed down time so I could keep taking in the scenery, so I could keep looking at those mountains that were so magnificent. The guide really liked us to see how the mountains looked like an elephant or a gorilla or a person, but in some ways, I think looking for these images distracted me from enjoying the incredible beauty of the mountains themselves.








As humans, we want to make meaning out of things. We want to find the meaning in difficult situations or in beautiful places. Maybe that’s why the guide was always trying to point out the animals that the rocks resembled. But sometimes in looking for the meaning that we want to find, we miss the meaning that’s actually there.
We look at the mountain and see an elephant rather than looking at the mountain and seeing a powerful and impressive mountain that our God created. I want to make sure that I am finding the right meanings in things.
Not that I think there’s anything wrong with looking for fun pictures in the mountains or animals in the clouds. But sometimes I think there’s also value in stopping to admire God’s creation as the incredible creation that it is.
Trees covered the mountains except for a few meters above water level. Our guide told us that the line represented the different levels of water during the rainy season and dry season. We were riding our boat through the reservoir part of the river. That meant that some of the places under the water used to be buildings and places were people lived. That was hard to imagine now as we looked over the water.
The dam controlled the water level in the summer which is the rainy season to be a bit lower so that floods would be easier to control. In the winter, during the dry season, the dam stopped more water so that the water level rose. This was done so that there would be more water to use for electricity.
At the end of our trip, we stopped in a county called Fengjie. We didn’t join the tour group, and I was glad because this town had some buildings that looked really interesting, and I wanted to explore.
A man tried to convince us to go with him to the White Emperor City. He assured us that he would give us a much cheaper price, and the price that he quoted (about $5) was much cheaper than what our cruise ship had charged for the tour. But we were pretty sure that there would be other fees later. Besides, when we tried to walk toward the buildings that I wanted to explore, he called after us, “There’s nothing over there!”
At that point, he completely lost my trust because we had already found a cool building with a nice walking trail along a wall next to the river. Later we found a tower and a museum and an ancient mansion.
The mansion was fascinating. We ended up talking to an older man who was a volunteer in the area, and he told us that the building had been dug up and moved to this spot when the dam was being built because its original location was flooded. The mansion had belonged to a rich man in the past with a house that looked like something from Dream of the Red Mansions it was so big and had so many gardens. The transplanted part wasn’t quite so big, but they had a display showing what it would have looked like when the man was living there.

We kept wandering around and enjoyed walking through the museum that talked about all of the wars that had been fought in the area around the time of the Three Kingdoms. This location was a central spot in China and along an important river, so everyone wanted it.
We saw a statue of Li Bai and one of his poems. I took a picture, but I have yet to figure out what the poem means. Maybe one day my Chinese will be good enough.

The lighting that evening was absolutely beautiful after all of the rain from earlier. The sun set behind some mountains on the other side of the river, but before it did, it cast a beautiful golden glow over everything. God’s masterpieces are always so incredible.



