China views

Premiere of New 3 Gorges 3D movie

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Premiere event

The Premiere of New 3 Gorges 3D movie was held in the Central Television Media Center on 26 June 2025.
The movie was jointly produced by the former Three Gorges Office of the State Council (now merged with the Ministry of Water Resources), Chongqing Municipal People’s Government, Hubei Provincial People’s Government, China Three Gorges Corporation and China Film Group Corporation, and many international film masters participated in the creation of the film. It took 30 years of tracking and shooting, more than 10 years of creation and polishing, the full support of 11 Chinese academicians; more than 50 experts and leaders participated in the dialogue, and 100 scholars and eyewitnesses contributed. It will be screened in more than 3,000 theaters across the country starting from June 26, and a series of international and domestic screenings will be launched.

During the premiere I was the only foreigner and also the only tourism expert from the expert group that took part in the November 2015 shooting, see the earlier post.
Many speeches from leaders and contributors and the presentation of the movie in 2D.
The detailed report of the event by China Report.:
The world premiere of the large-scale 3D documentary film “The New Three Gorges” with the theme of “Three Gorges Love and Chinese Heart” was held in Beijing, by China Report.
Here the original article in Chinese with translation into English: 250630 Sanxia_eventreport

I was interviewed I think by Chongqing TV.
During the “New Three Gorges Tourism Promotion Conference” delegates from several cities along the Yangtze River presented their region and local products and dishes were displayed.

Watching the 3D movie

On 28 June we went to watch the 3D movie in one of the very few theaters that showed 3D (somewhere in North 3rd Ring Road area), most were 2D. In the afternoon session we had the whole theater for us. We were told the morning session was full.

The double text in the pictures is because of the 3D.

My take on the movie

Of course I am honored and happy to be so much featured in the movie. But I regret none of the other members of our tourism expert team was featured and also none attended the premiere. It seems they were pretty unhappy with the movie, a sentiment I do share in part.
We saw so many amazing tourist sites but they appear little in the movie that spends too much time with insignificant themes. It fails to show the transformation by the rising waters, the impact on logistics and mobility in the whole region. There are other videos that show the submerged villages and structures; nothing about it in the movie.
The movie fails to project and promote the imposing tourist pearls along the Chongqing to Sanxia riverside. It missed a great opportunity.
Let’s hope that other movie segments will be shown later.

 

New 3 Gorges documentaries

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

Seven chapters

The New 3 Gorges documentaries had 7 episodes, each 30 minutes long, with 7 aspects of “dam”, “water”, “mountain”, “people”, “scenery/The View”, “city” and “dream”. It shows the new achievements, new changes and new developments of the Three Gorges reservoir area and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River after the completion of the Three Gorges Project. The film was launched in 2012 and the crew has invested in the shooting, production and polishing of “New Three Gorges for 10 years.
The documentaries were aired on CCTV9, 17 to 23 November 2022. I am featured as a tourism specialist, mostly in Chapter 5 “The View”, from the shooting in November 2015.

See some screenshots from the different chapters.
The movies are 2D, the 3D movie came out years later.
For the 3D shooting, Keith Merlin, the documentary director who won two Oscars, and Christie Niby, the director of “The Truth about Diaoyu Island” and “Mysterious China” , “Avatar” visual effects director Chuck Komisky, “Ocean”, “Migrating Birds” and “Penguin Diaries” director Jacques Behan and many other international film masters participated in the planning, shooting and guidance.

The 3D camera was showed during the Jialing River event on 3 August 2018.

New 3 Gorges documentaries details

Introduction of the 7 episodes, see the YouTube clip.
And on Vimeo.
Watch the full Chapter 5 on YouTube.
In my opinion the documentaries are somehow better than the final 3D movie. More about it in later posts.

Earlier media event

On 15 December 2015 a Media Event was held in the CCTV Media Center (Fuxing Road) to introduce the movie, “Discovering New Three Gorges”.
Check the earlier post.

 

 

The New 3 Gorges

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

 

A memorable adventure

On 2 November 2022 I landed in Chongqing to start my journey for the shooting of the movie “The New 3 Gorges”. I was the only foreigner in a group of over 50 experts, scholars and media personnel as well as several journalists. Also part were the many cameramen and the drone operator. It took 12 days, we traveled more than 3,000 kilometers along the Yangtze River from Chongqing to the Three Gorges Dam, and visited more than a dozen districts and counties, and more than 40 tourist attractions. Every day we needed to fill out a detailed report to evaluate the tourist sites we visited. Journeys were long and exhausting!

My official title: “Discovering the New Three Gorges”. Tourism Mission Leader and Expert GILBERT VAN KERCKHOVE Nationality: Belgium, Work Unit: International Leisure Industry Association. Position: Senior Expert Consultant.

I saw fantastic scenery, imposing tourist sites, I took hundreds of pictures, see some here as well some of the location maps during our travel. I still have an idea to publish some of the pictures.

In every city we passed we were received as VIPs by the local government.

We ended our journey on the dam of the Three Gorges 0n 12 November 2022.

 

Many sites visited

In this interview I gave some comments and recommendations about the tourist sites I visited: 151118 interviewGVK

See the planned program: 151102 program

Here is a list, actually incomplete as some locations were downvoted (sometimes wrongly in my opinion):

The ranking list of 30 Best New Three Gorges Scenic Spots

1三峡人家 (san xia ren jia in Yi Chang)、2三峡港湾 (san xia gang wan in Zhong Xian)、3神农溪 (shen nong stream in Ba Dong)、4汉丰湖 (han feng lake in Kai Xian)、5黄水旅游区 (Huang shui Tourist Area in Shi Zhu)、6鬼城名山 (the ghost city in Feng Du)、7三峡大坝 (Three Gorges Dam)、8神女景区 (shen nv Tourist Area in Wu Shan)、9平湖万州 (Wan Zhou city)、10新三峡电影公社 (New Three Gorges Film village in Wan Zhou)、11瞿塘峡 (Qutang Gorge)、12巫山小三峡 (Wu Shan Little Three Gorges in Wu Shan)、13天坑地缝 (tian keng di feng in Feng Jie)、14恩施大峡谷 (En Shi Grand Canyon in En Shi)、15雪玉洞 (Show Jade Cave in Feng Du)、16白帝城 (Bai Di City in Feng Jie)、17西沱古镇 (Xi Tuo Ancient town in Shi Zhu)、18龙缸景区 (Long Gang Tourism Area in Yun Yang)、19万州大瀑布 (Wan Zhou Great Falls in Wan Zhou)、20武陵山大裂谷 (Wu Ling Mountain Rift Valley in Fu Ling)、21大昌古镇 (Da Chang Ancient Town in Wu Shan)、22腾龙洞 (Teng Long Cave in Li Chuan)、23石宝寨 (Shi Bao Zhai in Zhong Xian)、24刘伯承纪念馆 (Liu Bo Cheng Memorial Hall in Kai Xian)、25白鹤梁水下博物馆 (Bai He Liang Underwater Museum in Fu Ling)、26文峰观 (Wen Feng Taoist Temple in Wu Shan)、27三峡梯城 (San Xia Ladder City in Yun Yang)、28张飞庙 (Zhang Fei Temple in Yun Yang)、29屈原故里 (Qu Yuan Temple in Zi Gui)、30涪陵两江广场 (Fu Ling Rivers Plaza in Fu Ling)

The dam

It’s the world’s 27th largest dam by reservoir volume, and the world’s largest power station by installed capacity (22,500 MW).  After the extensive monsoon rainfalls of 2020, the dam produced nearly 112 TWh in a year, breaking the previous world record set by the Itaipu Dam (Brazil) in 2016.

The dam’s body was completed in 2006; the power plant became fully operational in 2012. The last major component of the project, the ship lift, was completed in 2015. The dam, measuring 185 meters in height and 2,309 meters in width, significantly surpasses Brazil’s 12,600 MW Itaipu facility and is one of the world’s largest hydroelectric plants.

Each of the main water turbines, state-of-the-art at their installation, has a capacity of 700 MW. Combining the capacity of the dam’s 32 main turbines with the two smaller generators (50 MW each) that provide power to the plant itself, the total electric generating capacity of the Three Gorges Dam is 22,500 MW.

The generators were manufactured by two joint ventures: Alstom, ABB, Kvaerner, and the Chinese company Harbin Motor; and Voith, General Electric, Siemens (abbreviated as VGS), and the Chinese company Oriental Motor.

The dam enhances the Yangtze River’s shipping capacity and provides flood control, helping to protect millions of people from severe flooding on the Yangtze Plain.

Source with many details: Wikipedia.

In the eighties I introduced the Belgian technology of ship lifts to the project team but they failed to follow up. Much later the Chinese side came back to me but at that stage I said, sorry, all engineers have retired and Belgium cannot do it anymore. They built their own ship lift but as far as I can see, it is not that much used used, the ships usually use the ship locks.

See the story of the Belgian Strépy-Thieu boat lift in Wikipedia.

 

Huge statue in the Beijing Olympic Green

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Biggest statue?

The huge statue in the Beijing Olympic Green is not really the biggest statue in Asia, that title goes to “Statue of Unity” located in Gujarat, India with a height of 182 m, the World’s tallest statue.
The Athletes Alley, a work of Belgian artist Olivier Strebelle is certainly one of the biggest in recent history and of its kind.

It is a stainless steel sculpture of 100 m long, with a highest point of 20m and average height of 14.5m. The total weight is around 130 ton.
The sculpture was built to the north of the Olympic Village, in the southwest area of the Olympic Forest Park. It was created by the Belgian sculptor Olivier Strebelle, using five different groups of stainless steel sculptures. Each group is of a different height. They form a three-dimensional and can be admired from different angles. Each sculpture set is a piece of individual abstract artwork. The true meaning can only be seen from a specific point from the front: the sculptures then form five athletes to hold up the five Olympic Rings.

The story

It all started during my visit to Brussels when the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC – Piet Moons) asked me to visit the atelier of Olivier Strebelle, along with Baron Simon-Pierre Nothomb on 11 May 2004. Olivier had this old dream to build a statue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Reluctant at first we started working on the idea. It was rather “Mission Impossible”, as the Beijing Government declined all proposals to donate some art work for the Olympic Green. As we were pretty good in navigating Chinese administration and bureaucracy, we really succeeded. It was very difficult. We had to convince Olivier to change his design, we involved Prince Philippe (Belgium), we changed the funding to a gift from the Kingdom of Belgium. The Belgian side was often uncooperative, tried to eliminate us from the discussion but finally was told, you go through Gilbert or there will be no statue. We did not however get the full agreed compensation.
It is a long and complicate story and has been the subject of many of my seminars as an example on how to navigate the bureaucracy.
The Belgian technical team was extremely professional, the erection was incredibly complicated.

Top management left a lot to desire. At one point Eric Domb was named general manager but he soon left to fulfill his dream bringing pandas to Belgium – the famous Pairi Daiza Zoo.

In June 2007, the vice-chairman of BOCOG, Mr. Wang Wei and Prince Philippe of Belgium, jointly signed the first tube of the sculpture along with the artist Olivier Strebelle. That was all our idea.

It was officially inaugurated on 23 May 2008 in the presence of Beijing’s Vice Mayor Chen Gang, the Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel De Gucht and many other Chinese and Belgian VIP guests.

Inaugurated and abandoned

Olivier was planning to complete the Athletes Alley by placing a huge rock he had already selected to mark the viewing point, and to add a wall in stone with the list of all donors. Nothing was ever done. We stopped our assistance as we were not getting paid.

Olivier also had the idea to make a movie about the project and I was to help as I have a vast amount of pictures.
Sadly Olivier passed away on 29 July  2017 (age 90 years) in Brussels. We did not get any notice. We lost a dear beloved friend.
I tried to contact his foundation, his relatives and the government of Uccle in Brussels. Zero replies. So I still have a huge collection of documents, pictures and his books. Nobody cares. The Wikipedia post contains errors. The original websites are gone or damaged.

In the past the local Uccle government website had issues and the listed emails did not work. I tried again and it seems the mail service works now. Waiting for their reply.

Our visit 7 November 2022

As part of a major movie being shot about me by CCTV4, we also visited the Olympic Green to see the Athletes Alley.

A real disappointment. No adequate signage, a damaged explanation panel with mistakes, some pipes that require cleaning and  totally wrong gardening.
The planted bushes hide the pipe signed by Prince Philippe, I had to dig through the bushes to locate the pipe.
Who knows about our Belgian statue? Very few and nobody cares.
Rest in Peace Olivier. We will not forget your legacy.

Sun Bingwen, Zhu De and Liu Ding

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Statues near the river side

In a previous post I mentioned the history of Zhu De and Sun Bingwen. On 21 March 2024 a ceremony was held honoring the legacies of Sun Bingwen, Zhu De and Liu Ding. Two groups of statues are located on the river side at Nanxi City.

One location is with the statues of Zhu De and Sun Bingwen, the other is the statue of Liu Ding.
Sun Bin, as the granddaughter of Sun Bingwen and myself paid respect to the grandfather.
Liu Wenshi and Liu Wenshan, sons of Liu Ding the “military industry leader and united front hero” paid respect to their father.

The museums

We visted the Nanxi Museum and then the old residence of Zhu De in Nanxi.
Some of the pictures in the museum were donated by Sun Bin. Pictures feature Zhu De, Sun Bingwen. Sun Yang and Sun Weishi.

When we left the former residence, three young pioneers greeted Sun Bin, Liu Wenshi and Liu Wenshan.
Near the museum I spotted some interesting mural decorations…

Who is Liu Ding

Liu Ding (1902 – 1986) was a native of Nanxi, an older generation revolutionary activist of the Communist Party of China, a loyal communist fighter, and a famous military industrialist. He was an expert in the machinery industry, the founder and outstanding leader of my country’s military industry, and the first president of North China University. He is known as the dean of China’s military industry. In 1924, he joined the Communist Party of China after being introduced by Sun Bingwen and Zhu De. In 1924, he went to Germany for a work-study program and served as secretary of the Youth League branch in Germany. In 1926, he went to the Soviet Union for further study. Graduated from Moscow Oriental University in 1928. In 1929, he was transferred back to China and served as deputy section chief of the Second Section of the Special Section of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He has been engaged in underground intelligence work for a long time and made great contributions in the Xi’an Incident.

In 1952, in order to prepare for the trial production of standardized weapons he established a number of basic research institutes to serve the ordnance industry. They are the earliest technological research institutions established in New China.
His background in Chinese can be found here.
See here a transcript of the information in Chinese with partial translation: LiuDing_bio

A forest with Taxus Chinensis

On 22 March 2024 we crossed the Yabgtze River and went up to a mountain to check on the culture of a special plant called Taxus Chinensis, also called Chinese Yew.
In our delegation some participants are interested in the plant, used to produce medicines for cancer treatment, including Paclitaxel and Taxifolin. It can also be used in many other ways and is protected under Chinese and international law. Currently, the species is suffering the consequences of its economic and scientific exploitation for the production of the aforementioned anticancer drugs.

See more here: Taxus chinensis

We had a lunch with very local food on the mountain top.