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Published: November 8th 2008
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Although my post concerns what we did on Friday, it is Sunday here and I've been checking on my DAWGS. Good news today for the Dawg Nation although looking at the play recap, we appear to have had a couple of moments of anxiety.
Friday on the Yangtze
Today we took an extra excursion to the White Emperor City which dates from 25 AD. Apparently a high official in region looked at the mountain and saw a white cloud come from it and felt it was an omen telling him he should call himself the White Emperor and he built a complex at the top of the mountain. It was a 300 step climb and yes, Ernest and I made it. Before the rise of the Yangtze River due to the Dam, it was 1000 steps so I guess we were lucky. The views were obviously beautiful and Ernest captured it all. There wasn't much to note from this trip other than the scenery.
We got back to the boat for lunch and started going through the Three Gorges. We saw some hanging coffins that the local Ba tribe placed on the cliff face about 1000 years ago.
While there are 3 theories on how it was done, no one is exactly sure how they did it. Another mystery from the past.
This afternoon we took smaller boats into a side stream of the Yangtze called the Shennong Stream. Again, this is some of the most spectacular scenery in the world so I'll have to let Ernest's pictures tell that story, but we sailed in peapod boats that had been used for 1000 years by the locals, although now it is just used for tourists. This is the tribe that used what was called boat trackers who walked along the edge of the cliff pulling these boats upstream and turning them around. We were turned around in this method, although in history they were naked due to the friction of the clothing with the rope. We didn't get that authentic.
I have to say that everywhere we go, as soon as we leave the bus, or get to our attraction spot there are an overabundance of locals trying to sell you something. It somewhat cheapens the attractions since they are allowed to set up hawker stands inside. That is unusual for me. But you just have
to ignore them cause if you even look at what they are selling they will follow you all around. Ernest is great at bargaining. Nothing is a set price here. He got 2 Mandarin jackets for me for 40 yuan which is less than $7 a piece.
We leave the boat on Saturday morning after a quick visit to the Yangtze River Dam for the government propaganda party line. Do not mention the relocation. I'll include those pictures here as well. We have to spend 5 hours in a bus going from Yichang, where the boat docks to Wuhan, so there won't be any news for that part.
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janet
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Beautiful scenery
Very pretty along the river. I love those pics. As far as the DAWGS, much better news than last week but suffice it to say we had more than a couple of moments of anxiety. Let's just say it goes in the win column and be done with it.