A selection of old and rare photos, taken in the late 1940s, of The Three Gorges of the Yangtze River, the longest river in China. The Powerpoint slideshow presentation also includes a few recent photos of the Three Gorges for comparison

1. The Historical Three 歷史三峽
Gorges
An historical perspective.
Wu Gorge
All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners.
Available free for non-commercial and personal use. Version 1.0 2 Dec 2011. Jerry Tse. London.

2. LIFE 1956
In 1946, Dmitri Kessel lived on the Yangtze River for 7 months and took a series of photos of the
Three Gorges. Some of this collection were published 10 years later in the LIFE magazine.

3. Dmitri Kessel (1902-1995) was born in Kiev, Ukraine. For many years he worked as a photographer
and a war correspondent for LIFE magazine. Other photo collections of his included WW II, the Greek
Civil war, the Andes , mining in Central Africa and portraits of royalty.

4. Overloaded sampan operated for the local traffic.

7. Tracker’s path

10. Kessel even imagined a dam can
be built in the Three Gorges.

17. Wu Gorge 巫峽

20. Wu Gorge 巫峽

22. “I have no home; my
body is my home. But I
am an old good. I shall
stay on boats, and there
will always be someone
to hire me and when I
am old, all my brothers
in the boatmen’s guild
and all the captains on
the riverside who know
me will give me a few
coppers in payment for
the friendship. I have
hoarded for them. I will
have plenty. I will have
a fine funeral.” the
tracker said. LIFE 11
June 1956 p141.

24. Wu Gorge 巫峽

25. Trackers’ path on the cliff for towing boats upstream.

26. Meng Cheng was a streamer, a victim of the Yangtze rapids.

27. Low water and foaming rapids appeared in the dry season of the year.

28. Wu Gorge 巫峽
Rowers working through the rapids.

35. Qutang Gorge 瞿塘峽 The well-known view of the entrance to the gorge.

36. Qutang Gorge 瞿塘峽 Baidi city 白帝城

37. Zhibaozhai 石寶寨

39. National In 1948, Robert Moore published an article
on the National Geographic Magazine,
with photos he took travelled on the
Yangtze River.
Geographic
1948

41. Wu Gorge 巫峽

42. Nationalist soldiers playing cards on a streamer. These could the
soldiers that stopped the Japanese advance in the WW II at Shibei.

44. Wu Gorge 巫峽

45. Fleet of Junks near the town of Fengkieh in the background.

46. River barges tied themselves to a streamer travelling on the Yangtze near Chongqing.

47. Chongqing 重慶

48. Views Today

49. Xiling Gorge 西陵 Shibei well known for repelling the Japanese advance on Chongqing in WWII. 石牌

50. Xiling Gorge 西陵

51. Three Gorge Dam 三峽大壩

52. Three Gorge Dam 三峽大壩 Clean electricity

53. Wu Gorge 巫峽

54. Wu Gorge 巫峽

55. Wu Gorge 巫峽

56. Wu Gorge 巫峽

57. Qutang Gorge 瞿塘峽

58. Qutang Gorge 瞿塘峽

59. Baidi city 白帝城

60. The
End
All rights reserved. Rights belong to their respective owners. Available
free for non-commercial and personal use. Music – Voices composed by Vangelis (Evangelos Odysseas
Papathanassiou), from his album . Vooices.