Yangtze River - huge landslide caused by the washing away of subjacent trees and foliage.
Landslide halts Yangtze River cruise
(Xinhua)
23:51, October 23, 2011
CHONGQING - A landslide in southwest China's Chongqing municipality blocked part of the Yangtze River's navigation route Friday, forcing the cancellation of a river cruise for multitudes of tourists, local authorities said Saturday.
The landslide happened at around 7 am Friday in Liangping township of Wushan county, said an officer with Chongqing's armed police headquarters who joined the river cleanup and helped evacuate tourists.
Although there were no casualties, the officer said cruise and ferry services from Wushan to Yichang, where the landmark Three Gorges Dam is located in the central Hubei province, were canceled, and there is no timetable as to when the route would reopen.
The county government sent a fleet of buses to transport tourists, all of whom were evacuated as of Saturday afternoon, he said.
"We were woken up and ushered off the ship at 4 am Friday," said an Internet user surnamed "beijingshaniuer" on Sina Weibo, a popular Twitter-like microblogging service. "We then spent nine hours on a bus to Yichang. It was drizzling the entire time."
A cruise along the Yangtze River remains trendy in China, particularly in spring and fall. A downstream cruise from Chongqing to Yichang takes four days, whereas the upstream cruise normally takes five days.
Source: http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7624112.html
Yangtze landslide near Three Gorges Dam 'won't block river': experts
www.chinaview.cn 2009-04-07 23:36:38 Print
CHONGQING, April 7 (Xinhua) -- A landslide on a section of the bank of China's Yangtze River near the Three Gorges Dam may fall into the river but will not block it, experts said Tuesday.
Cracks had been seen in the landslide and its shape had continued to change, said Yin Yueping, deputy chief of the investigation team, deputy general engineer of China Geological Survey.
Traffic on the river will not be stopped although the landslide may fall into the river, Yin said.
The landslide will be monitored round the clock, said Zhou Shihong, deputy director of the municipal Bureau of Land and Resources.
A portion of the river's southern bank in Guling township, Yunyang County of southwest China's Chongqing Municipality broke loose from the rest of the bank since November last year, when the cofferdams of the Three Gorges Dam tried to hold water at a depth of 175 meters, Zhou said.
The dislocation had worsened since March and quickened pace in recent days, Zhou said.
The 55 people living on the sliding portion, called the Liangshuijing landslide, have been evacuated.
According to the observation center, the soil in the landslide is estimated to be 3.6 million cubic meters, covering 100,000 square meters.
Nearly 10,000 vessels pass through this section of river each year, about 300 vessels per day with 23,000 passengers per day.
Eight coastguard vessels had been working on the river and no casualties or accidents had been reported, Zhou said.
Source: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-04/07/content_11145630.htm