Terracotta Warriors and Three Gorges

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Terracotta Warriors

After exploring Beijing, we took an overnight train to Xian (shee-an). We had a soft sleeper which means each room has four bunks and each bunk has a pillow and a blanket. The trains are not as smooth as European trains and several times during the night there were significant jolts that left us wondering if we were still on the tracks

When we arrived in Xian, our new guide, Dragon, was waiting for us with a sign that said “John Arthur Ingham, 4 pax.” Does that mean John is enough work for four?

Our only reason to visit Xian was to see the Terracotta Warriors. They were made for Emperor Qin, the man who united China (by conquering everyone) and was the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. Unfortunately for him, the Qin Dynasty fell during the rule of the second emperor so it was a pretty short dynasty. The TW were put into his tomb so he would have an army in the afterlife. I find it interesting that the ancient Chinese and the ancient Egyptians developed the same concept of the after life but I am sure archeologists appreciate it.

Most everyone has heard that the faces are all unique but are people aware that the tomb complex was sacked when the Qin dynasty fell 15 years after the emperor’s death? In addition they used wooden timbers to support the dirt roof and those timbers have decayed and collapsed over time. As a result of both the sacking and time, there are very few pieces still intact; those that are whole have mostly been reassembled like a 3D jigsaw puzzle. The other thing that is both surprising and pleasing is that the Chinese are aware of several other chambers of warriors and the mausoleum of Qin but are electing to leave them buried until archeology techniques improve. I would like to see the mausoleum with its model city and rivers of mercury but it is more important that it stay buried until it can be safely investigated.

Yangzi River Cruise

The next day we spent all day (15 hours) traveling from Xian to Yichang. To our surprise, we had a hard sleeper on the train. That means beds not seats even though it is a day trip and the beds are stacked three high in an open barracks style but they do come with a pillow and a blanket. Needless to say, the hard sleeper is noisy and the one we took was filthy (okay, just dirty).

Luckily we had been warned that the food was not very good so had purchased some food, mostly big bowls of ramen noodles. So many people eat them that the train provides free boiling water. They are a staple of the traveling Chinese public and are much more varied than the American variety. For instance, most also come with dehydrated veggies and hot sauce as well as the flavor packet.

We did not arrive in Yichang until after midnight so went direct to the hotel and to bed. After a very nice night’s sleep on the most comfortable bed so far, we headed out to find breakfast. Just behind our hotel was an alley filled with street vendors selling lots of things….bowls of noodles (one vendor had eight different types of noodles), fried dough, boiled dumplings which were then browned, whole eggs boiled in soy sauce and herbs, juice, flatbread and more. John and I had fried dough and dumplings and I had a hard boiled egg. The egg was tasty because it had been boiled in a flavored broth and that seeped through the shell and flavored the egg.

We spent the afternoon touring the Three Gorges Dam. It provides three services: flood control, hydroelectric power and a navigable waterway. It has two generator blocks and a spillway on the dam. They also dug through a nearby hill to put in two five-step locks, one for each direction. I was used to fancy names from Beijing so was disappointed to hear they named the two generator blocks “left” and “right” and a viewing platform “158” because that is its altitude in meters. But all you engineers read this…they finished a year ahead of schedule! (But they were 100% over budget.)

Around dinner time, we boarded our boat for the Yangzi River Cruise. The boat we are on is designed for Chinese tourists and although it is not top end it is fine. For this part of our tour we have joined another tour group from Europe and we are the only Caucasians on the ship. The food is rumored to be pretty bad so it is bring your own (BYO). We brought the ubiquitous ramen noodles and cookies. It is also BYO towel, another fact they did not tell us. The only significant objection I have is the rats. Some of the folks in the other group have seen rats and I heard them once scrabbling around in the ceiling. Despite the movie “Ratatouille,” rats give me the creeps.

That evening and into the next morning, the boat went through six river locks, five of them were in a row to go up the 158 meters of the Three Gorges Dam. Since we did not enter the locks until after midnight, we watched only one complete lock cycle before going back to bed. The long part is getting the boats into place. After that, it took 4 minutes to close the door, 7 minutes to raise the water 30 meters, 4 minutes to open the door and 40 minutes to move all seven ships into the next lock. All very efficient and business like.

The name of this section of the river is Three Gorges so you are probably not surprised to read that we sailed through three gorges. We sailed through Xiling Gorge overnight but since it is mostly full of water, we did not object. The second gorge we sailed through was Wu Gorge where we saw the rock formation called Goddess Peak which looks like a woman praying. The story is that she is the youngest daughter of Wu (god) and she likes earth better than Wu’s palace but she does not like all the dangers of the river so she is praying for those to stop.

For the engineers in the crowd, here are some numbers to help you understand the scale. The dam blocked the Yangzi River and created a reservoir 550 km long. In the gorges we were passing through, the water has risen 60 - 100 meters but the sheer walls still rise above the water by 400 meters.

Between the gorges were farm houses surrounded by terraced slopes containing tea and orange farms. There were numerous small towns and even one small city. In China, a city of 5 million people is considered small.

The third gorge was Qutang Gorge. It is a short but sheer-walled gorge and is the most impressive of the three. During our second night on the ship we sailed back to the TG Dam and from there we boarded yet another overnight train.

We have now finished our official tour and are headed to the beautiful town of Yang Shuo to teach English for two weeks. I want to leave you with some more Chinglish sayings we found.

In a Bathroom: “Carefully Slip” (Slippery, Be Careful)
Next to a pond: “Care Fell Into the Water” (Slippery, Be Careful)
On a boat: “Throw away a rubbish not arbitrarily” (Do not litter)
On a boat: “Have clothes easy to rescue a body on” (Wear your life jacket)

General Observations on Beds

Although not bamboo mats on the floor, beds in China are different and take getting used to. For starters, they are harder than western beds. In Jinshanling even John thought they were too hard and I thought they had purchased a box spring instead of a mattress. Pillows are no different but the typical linen consists of a bottom sheet and a comforter with a duvet that (I assume) is changed for every guest. In addition, most double rooms have two beds, either twin or double size. We have been in China for ten nights and have had a joint bed once. We have heard that the beds get softer as you go south. That has not proven true yet but we can hope.

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Photos

Three Gorges Dam
Beth, John, Bob and Meri Jo with the Three Gorges Dam in the background.

Ship Locks
Inside Lock #1 of the Three Gorges Dam

Goddess Peak
The smaller figure to the right of the big rock is the goddess.