9/11/98 11:00 PM Jingzhou, Hubei

On Friday, our hosts from Jingzhou took us to see the Three Gorges Dam project, near the city of Yichang, about two hours away from our hotel by bus. This required immense effort on their part, as the area is normally closed to tourists, especially foreign ones, and even then can only be booked weeks ahead.

Three Gorges is the largest public works project in the world. The dam is an attempt to use the upper reaches of the Yangtze River for hydroelectric power, as well as contribute to controlling the river in order to reduce flooding.

The scenery on the way was spectacular.

Yichang itself has become a booming city as a result of the money being spent on the dam.

We were first shown a scale model of the overall project, including a new bridge across the river, the dam itself, as well as an elaborate dual system of locks to allow shipping to get past the dam.

	We were taken around various parts of the project. The size and design of the locks were the feature that intrigued most of us.
The Chinese explained the layout of the dam and related facilities and discussed the management and planning methods used to keep the project on schedule.

	Looking around the site it seemed like a kid was carving into the earth -- but this work is the result of the efforts of more than 25,000 workers over a vast area. There is so much construction that the normally clear mountain air was generally hazy from dust.

On our return to Jingzhou, we visited park and cultural facilities about which Westchester County Parks Commissioner Salvatore DeSantis had been asked to provide expertise. This included the Jingzhou Museum, where we met with the Director.

	We were also given a tour of some of the ancient works of art and artifacts.

At the end, there was a brief presentation of traditional Chinese music in the theater at the museum.

From there, we went to the Bonsai garden, which has some of the most interesting and rare bonsai anywhere in the world County Executive Spano pointed out that the treasures of this ancient city would be of great interest, but that the facilities themselves needed some improvement and better organization. He promised continued cooperation with Jingzhou to help with this and discussed the idea of pairing Westchester parks with those in Jingzhou.

Our next stop was to one of the eight, old-walled entrances to the city.
	The walls around Jingzhou are almost a smaller replica of the Great Wall.

The County Executive and the Mayor of Jingzhou met in the major new park of the city for the planting of the Friendship Tree.

This was in part the County's way of saying "thank you" for the Chinese pavilion built in Lasdon Park. It was a major media event in Jingzhou with every important official there and dozens of on-lookers.

On the way back to our hotel, we passed by the waterfront area of Jingzhou, a lovely residential area.

At night, there was another formal  dinner meeting with the city officials.It started with a speech by the Mayor, followed by a speech by the County Executive. Then at the dinner tables, the real and informal interaction occurred. The latter discussions were very informative and useful to us.