For the first time in my recent memory of Chongqing winters, the skies cleared. It also happened to be the last day of school for wee ones before Spring Festival break. This combination brought hordes of grandparents and grandkids out to Renmin Square, a stretch of public space between the Chongqing People’s Assembly Hall and the Three Gorges Museum (also known as Chongqing Museum).
As little ones rollerbladed across the square and old ones diddle-daddled under the sun, I spent a few hours learning about my dad’s hometown in the Museum.
The four floors housed around nine exhibits and one panoramic film (at the time of my visit). My favorite, perhaps unsurprisingly since the museum was named after this massive project, was the Hall of Three Gorges, a semi-interactive and overall engaging exhibit with true-to-scale dioramas, murals and rock carvings, and wall-sized photographs that display the story of the world’s largest hydroelectric dam.
The dam spans across the Yangtze River and runs past three gorges between Chongqing and Hubei Province. The project displaced over a million residents to provinces as far as Northeast China and caused irreparable ecological damage. It is still, however, considered a national success and there’s a museum to prove it.
The Museum offers free admission, free drinking water, and clean restrooms equipped with toilet paper (but no soap), a delightful air-conditioned treat during Chongqing’s scalding summer months! Also, if you’re in the mood for people-watching, Renmin Square is teeming with life. I guarantee you’ll see something amusing! 
Now that you have a tiny idea about the Three Gorges, why don’t you hop on over to Chongqing and embark on a weeklong cruise down the Yangtze River to see what all this fuss of national pride is about? And take me with you ’cause I have yet to see it myself!
Winter Stroll through the Summer Palace
Hi Emily, I enjoy reading your reports and musings from China, and look forward to reading about your future adventures. I wondered if the Three Gorges Museum, in addition to explaining the achievements of the project, also communicates the downsides of the project to visitors?
Hi Lauren!! It’s so wonderful to hear from you and thank you so much for following my blog 🙂
Unfortunately, as is true of most Chinese museums I’ve visited, it’s very rare to discuss the downsides of any government action. For example, while I use the term displacement in my post, the museum (at least in the translated English explanation — I can’t read Chinese) praises the former residents for their heroic, voluntary migration as their contribution to the dam. I also did not see anything about the environmental damages. Instead, they exhibited the diverse wildlife that exist in the Three Gorges region, which no doubt still exist or existed, but who knows what have happened to them since the dam.
China’s an awesome country for so many reasons, but a major downside is the sweeping-under-the-table of information. Propaganda is rampant as ever, to the point where I feel I shouldn’t say anything more on my blog while I’m connected to Chinese wifi…But in general, as the standard of living continues to increase, people are becoming more educated (easy to see as Chinese international students fill US schools) and in this digital age, even the remotest countryside farmers have access to social media. It will become harder and harder to hide information from people.
Makes me want to go back to China, Emily. 😀 And I totally get you about sweep under the rug information and propaganda….that drove my husband insane as a Taiwanese man. xD My husband said, “It’s not whether if I like it or not, if it is not true and you still say it..that is what bugs me.” That’s all I am going to say about that.
What’s holding you back from returning to China? And let’s just say I 100% agree with your husband…
My husband doesn’t like China AT ALL. He didn’t have such strong resistance from China till he moved to Shanghai, and wow, that opened a whole can of worms of how much hatred he has for China. xD He was so fed up…
Ohhhh yeah and I hear shanghai is the most exclusive city in China…well hopefully one day he’ll give it another chance 🙂
Hi Emily!
I enjoy reading your blog. There’s something about your musings that I relate so much to. Maybe, it’s because of the many socioeconomic and cultural similarities that we have.
Keep on posting.
Athan Zimik
Hi Athan! I appreciate so much that you’ve looked at my blog and am happy to hear that there’s a lot we can relate on. Sometimes it’s hard to explain those things with people. Thanks again for the encouragement 🙂 I’ll keep posting!!!