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Published: April 8th 2012
Quitang Gorge on Yangtze River
Passing through the third and most narrow gorge, Quitang., but this is going to be an incredibly long-winded blog (everything about China is out-sized, even our blog), so if you like, just skim the titles and if you see something that catches your fancy,
READ ON … and skip the parts that don't grab you (of course, it's
ALL incredibly fascinating!). Big Brother in China might be watching over you … but if you skip some passages,
we're NOT! CRUISING the Yangtze (Chang Jiang) from Three Gorges Dam A quick hop of a flight west from Shanghai to Wuhan on good ole
China Eastern Air (they provide meals on flights of 1.5 hrs …gotta love 'em!) and another 4.5 hours (285k) by bus on a very new expressway across beautifully scenic farm country to the town (it's a town because it ONLY has 4.5 million people) of
Yichang. Fields of a couple of acres each are spaced out all along the route, with individuals or small groups of farmers working diligently in most patches, frequently with a lone water buffalo munching away. Amongst the endless fields and later terraces, we see workers hoeing and hand spraying rice, wheat and rapeseed (canola), and we often spot small collections
Three Gorges Locks
The Yangtze is a very very busy shipping lane into and out of the heart of China. These locks allow the constant flow of watercraft to travel past the dam. The locks are entirely manmade, blasted out of a mountain. Soon there will be a small ship "elevator" right up and over the dam. of headstones right in the middle of all the cultivation. Many are decorated in fancy, colourful garlands and ribbons for the coming week's
Qingming Festival, a celebration of family members passed that is roughly equivalent to the spanish traditions of
Dia de Los Muertos ("Day of the Dead"). I'm thinking to myself that maybe it's time that we honoured our friends and family in a similar way … .
Driving through the streets of Yichang, our tour guide for the day, a young and somewhat-less-skilled-in-English "Jimmy" (perhaps it was his Swedish chef lilt?), points across the road to the park we are passing so that we can take in the view of all the people flying their
"cats". Shocked … we had been prepared to encounter feline protein as a possible food item on this trip, but never once did we expect airborne kitties … isn't this just a touch TOO cruel?? A load of our co-wide-eyed tourists on the bus shift and strain their eyes into the park to see the sky filled with ...
"kites"… ahhh, a collective sigh of relief!
After a quick stop for dinner in Yichang, we continue another 25 k up the
Three Gorges Dam
Upstream side of the dam. It goes way off into the lightly hazy distance.We weren't offered a tour of the inner workings. road to the site of the Three Gorges Dam, which is also where our cruise boat awaits our arrival. Twilight is upon us and we can see the downriver aspect to the monster-sized dam, lit in splendour. Darkness is in full bloom as we and our travel-weary bus-mates descend from the bus and down the river hillside on a "Funicular" (
Wikipedia --- cliff cable railway in which a cable attached to a pair of tram-like vehicles on rails moves them up and down a steep slope; the ascending and descending vehicles counterbalance each other.). And imagine, Maureen pulls that name out of the air from 1971 in Quebec City … funicular!!. At the dock, lit up in the night, our 6 layered cruise boat, "
Yangtze 2" sits. We are escorted by and past many many smiling young crew members, all calling out friendly
Nihao's ("Hello") as they help us manoeuvre past obstacles hidden by the dark, to our beautiful little cabin on the 4th level.
The following morning, having stayed at berth for the night, we pile back onto our bus for a tour of the dam site, the world's largest, and the stories of 1.3 million displaced townspeople
Loading Coal
One of many coal depots along the Yangtze. Coal can no longer be mined on the slopes facing the Three Gorges Reservoir, but you can mine it in the slopes behind and truck it to the depot. resulting from the dam's manufacture. As the dam construction neared, whole new replacement cities were built on hillsides and behind protective dams. Over a million farmers and their families were moved to these cities, the older generation upset and angered to lose their land (some farmers dug up their orange trees and moved them to higher ground to offset the eight years it would take new orange trees to reach production - we saw beautiful, heavily laden orange groves as we sailed along), many of the young excited by the prospects of city life and new, larger homes. This dam was a long time coming. The Chinese had input from American engineers after the completion of the Colorado River's Hoover Dam in 1936, then from Russian engineers during China's communist isolation period, and finally, more than 20 years after Mao's death, they started the project in 1998 with Chinese engineers. The Chinese government views the project as an historic engineering, social and economic success, with the design of state-of-the-art large turbines, a hazardless navigation route, life-saving flood control, and a move toward limiting greenhouse gas emissions. However, the dam flooded archaeological and cultural sites and is causing significant ecological changes,
Shennong Stream
We motored in a small ferry boat upstream to a river dock that was mostly a tourist shop with the boats ready to load on the far side. These Tujia men were waiting for the tourists to arrive for their Sampan ride - many men smoked and many played very animated card games. including an increased risk of landslides and interference with fish migration. A net positive?? You'll have to decide that one!
We're told (and can see for ourselves to some degree on this day) that in the Three Gorges Dam area the air is often hazy and polluted, and is generally in a "fog" about 200 days of the year. So the question tourists more often ask the tour guides is not
"how high is the dam ... or how long is the dam ... but ... WHERE is the dam?!" .
The dam tour over, we return to the cruise boat and hit the High … RIVER! For 3 more days and nights we float upstream in this famous channel --
the largest in Asia, 3rd largest in the world -- that is a major highway for tourists and goods transport. Coal depots are frequently visible along the journey, and the river itself is full of barges loaded with coal. I think putting 2 and 2 together here shows good cause for why we see so much haze in the air throughout China … coal-fired power hasn't been supplanted just yet by the hydro power produced at the
Sampan Ride
Heave Ho - two men in the back, a grunt of 12 tourists, and more men rowing hard in the front. Sadly we engaged in some cheerleading for our boat to overtake another ... but ... the local guide coached our vocabulary. Three Gorges.
You know when you travel in Europe and after a few days you come to know your experience as the ABC -- Another Bloody Cathedral -- Tour? We discovered along the Yangtze very quickly that China's own homegrown version of this tedium from frequent sightings is the
ABB -- Another Bloody Bridge -- tour. Every bend in the river, every new town (HAA, city!), every new … well you name it, because most everything is new, brings on a huge bridge under construction, spanning the waterway, and possibly two or three other smaller, older bridges up the hillside. You do need bridges when the Yangtze has 300 tributaries. The inner aspect of the Three Gorges has many areas of wildness yet you sense that on the back side of these mountains there is a surge of activity and development.
Each day along the Yangtze, we tether up and head out for a little adventure before moving further upstream. The most pleasurable of the side stops was a Sampan (small wooden boats that hold approximately 12 passengers and 6 boat men) or "Peapod" boat trip up the Shennong Stream, a narrow tributary of the Yangtze River. The
Around The Bend And Out Of Nowhere.
Wow, this mega bridge is under construction, apparently in the middle of nowhere, across the Shennong Stream. We slipped insignificantly between the towers on our little ferry. sampan crew consists of the captain, who steers the boat, and two or three boat trackers, that row the boat with single paddles. The boat trackers are from the Tujia ethnic minority group. The Shennong Stream's beautiful emerald green waters flow swiftly through deep gorges, and are much different from the Yangtze's dark brownish-green. The gorge widens several times into rolling hamlets with serene little farms that could be dotting Italian hillsides ...
Ciao Bella! The scenery along this tributary of the Yangtze is spectacular. All along the river's shores are signs of ancient Chinese civilization. There is much to look at: steep ridges and peaks, huge caves, thick vegetation, wild flowers, plank roads built along cliffs and the ancient hanging coffins which date back approximately 2,000 years. Ancient local inhabitants buried their dead in hanging coffins in little recesses in the sides of the cliffs. Our sweet young boat guide sings traditional songs and an idyllic morning is passed on the Shennong.
THREE Things a Canadian Tourist SHOULD Know When in China 1. ACT like STICKY RICE- Chinese crowds are formidable in places like Tienanman Square...you want to go home with your group? Hang
An Unexpected Vista
An idyllic country scene in the midst of the Shennong Gorge, very, very zen. together like sticky rice or become one in a billion Chinese!
2. HAPPY ROOM- this is not the term for where they put crazy people in China...this is the place where you go to squat over a hole in the floor and do...well..you can figure this one out!
3. KNOW WHEN YOU'VE MADE THE PURCHASE- stop for a moment in any sales stall or with a street vendor to look at the goods, and don't plan on getting away without the use of a crowbar, light arms weapons, or the passing of cash...you will NOT escape until money has been extracted from your pocket!
TERRA-COTTA Warriors in Xi'an Most of us visit famous places with a pre-conceived notion of what we will be seeing and learning … "how large will this be?", or " I think I'll like this or that". Not unlike our visit to Machu Picchu 2 years ago, the scope of this colossus was WAY beyond my knowledge or appreciation. The Terra-cotta Warriors and City are the makings of a megalomania of an earlier era, depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. It is a form
Terra-cotta Warriors
The museum buildings on this site are attractive on the outside yet designed to allow the enormity of this exhibit be realized on the inside. Bill Clinton may have walked among the soldiers but we had to absorb the ambience from the sidelines. of funerary art buried with the emperor in 210–209 BC and whose purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, to make sure that he had people to rule over and to provide the comforts he was accustomed to. The soldiers' bodies (somewhat larger than the people of the time) were moulded from terra-cotta as generals, captains, cavalrymen, infantrymen or archers, solid in the legs for stability, hollow in the torso and headless. The heads were added last, each unique, fashioned after the Emperor's actual army by craftsmen embedded with the army for this purpose.
The Terra-cotta figures were initially unearthed about 38 years ago after a group of three farmers digging a well in an agricultural field outside the city of Xi'an in the mid-west region of China discovered pottery shards. They had no idea of what all lay beneath their fields. Quite quickly it was discovered that the finding was a full city-sized underground mock up of a civilization designed to provide the then-unloved Emperor Qin with a tomb for his remains and an afterlife world of his own design. Although only a small fraction of the huge development created by 700,000 workers (might we use
"9 Star" General
The rank of soldiers could be determined by their clothing but also by how they wore their hair. the word "slaves" here?) over 40 years has been uncovered, there are already terra-cotta armies of warriors of all classes with horses and accompanied by livestock and laborers of different occupations. In all, the underground tomb covers an area of about
52 square kilometres …
52 square kilometres!! This is paradoxical because it represents an area that is 4 times larger than the Emperor's own walled city of Xi'an of the time.
Two thousand
living concubines and tradespeople and horses were interred in the tomb along with the Emperor...the tradespersons were included so that they were unable to inform enemies of the Emperor where the location of the tomb was. Interestingly, despite attempting to hide the tomb, it was located by oppositional parties and irate local farmers who broke through the entryways and burned and damaged large areas of the formidable underground city. Although still unearthed, it appears that access to the hidden inner sanctum for the emperor was never made by the angry citizens in their fury. The Chinese government is patiently waiting for the technology necessary to preserve whatever they find in the inner sanctum. The Terra Cotta Warriors already uncovered, were initially painted and colourful but
Emma
Most Chinese involved in the tourist trade have an English name. We met this young lady, Emma, at the Captain's Reception. She referred to Maureen as "my other mother", with a giggle. we heard one tour guide suggest that the paint deteriorated within days of exposure to light.
A generation or more of resources put into one man's glorification, pain and misery caused to so many…and an incredible sight to us now.
Political Note: Don't anyone tell Canada's PM Stephen Harper about this! FOOD I'm one of the best at sticking my foot in my mouth (note indirect reference to food in that statement!!) but, Prince Philip once said, perhaps not so delicately,
"If it has four legs and is not a chair, has wings and is not an aeroplane, or swims and is not a submarine, the Chinese will eat it." People we've spoken to in China are proud of the food that they prepare and eat. They use the old joke about the
"unlucky man" that has a Chinese salary, British cooking, a Japanese-size house and an American wife ...the
"lucky man" has an American salary, a British house, a Japanese wife and Chinese cooking. Of course, everything is subjective but we're prepared after 16 days of eating Chinese tourist food in various ( but similar) styles for lunch and supper to say that Chinese food
Table For 10
Typical setting for dinner with the Lazy Susan to do its magic! would not be our first choice if there was an international rating.
We've enjoyed a large selection of regionally diverse items from Shanghai, Chongqing, Xian, and Beijing that was always anchored on... surprise... sticky rice!! Rice throughout has been very good, a consistent quality, but what else would you expect in China? To the well-educated and subtle palate (this excludes us BTW!) there are probably a huge host of differences in the local flavour and spice mixes. Use of more or less meat (often a garnish with a vegetable dish) and meats of differing varieties also play a part in the subtle diversity. Vegetables were varied and plentiful but generally chopped, cooked, and coated in oily sauces, too. One consistency we definitely note regardless of city or region and in addition to the rice base, is the ubiquitous smell of
hot cooked canola oil wafting through the air. In restaurants, and in the streets, morning and night, there is a scent instantly recognizable ...cooking oil! Battered and deep fried foodstuffs appear to be a mainstay in daily cooking in every region- which likely explains the popularity and large number of KFC outlets. The sight of both large large tracts
Dumplings In Different Shapes And Flavours
A special "dumpling" night where there were 15 differently shaped dumplings eg duck, frog, fish, pig...oink oink! and teeny tiny patches of cheery yellow canola along the Yangtze River are a testament to the huge internal use of the stuff. But bottom line for us is that after a couple of days of the smell coupled with jet lag and assorted head and gut illnesses, nauseating is the easiest descriptor to conjure up for its scent.
One of the great fun events of the trip has been the noon and dinner time table game called
"Guess that Meat or Vegetable"! Each non-breakfast meal is served in the same fashion with 10 of us seated around a table with a large glass spinning
"Lazy Susan" upon which are placed 8 to 12 various dishes for individual serving. Some selections are a snap to identify such as carrot, or chicken leg, or prawn. But in most instances the mystery meat or vegetable is just that, and the game begins as people around the table begin to test the content of the plate.
"Is it fish? ...No, I think it's pork … no its fish … pork… or, I'm pretty sure it's a type of mushroom, or maybe some other fungus...it could be cheese". Batter and sauces increase the
Boys Will Be Boys
School boys hamming for the camera in Fuling City where we stopped to tour the newly opened, world's first, Underwater Museum of Baiheliang or White Crane Ridge. challenge - deep fried onion rings, or were they pineapple rings, actually turned out to be apple slices when opened up. On our last night, in one dish, what we though was noodles turned out to be eggplant and what we thought was the eggplant part was
"century egg" or pickled egg.
We are not convinced that we ate typical foods. We wonder if we ate 32 "Sunday Night Dinners" while in China, or company fare rather than family fare. We certainly learned Lazy Susan etiquette, eventually .. take just a little, there are 10 of us, and slowly turn the LS so that others may sample as well. Because one eats from a small plate and dishes are presented over time, it is way too easy to lose a sense of how darn much you are eating except that you don't want to leave food when there are starving children in … China? … tourist foie de gras anyone? The trick of determining the food type got the best of me twice: one dinner I helped myself to a large serving of beautiful looking green beans…turns out that there is a VERY hot, spicy pepper that resembles beans…who
Ghost City
Our one rainy day was a tour of the Ghost City at Fengdu, a hilltop site renowned for its statues of ghosts and devils. knew! ; the second goof was serving myself a good old bowl of raisin bran cereal at breakfast and topping it off with a sizeable helping of fresh fruit salad that was actually a spicy hot pickle mixture…if this ever takes off as a new culinary fusion style, I'll be in line to take some credit…but I'm not holding my
hot, steamy breath.
In our Next Episode Well, this takes us to the end of our visit to Xi'an, and our next (and last) leg of the journey has us in-flight to the capital,
Beijing. The modern home of Chinese Communism... and the heart of China, who knows what this city of 20 million holds in store. Perhaps we'll encounter an earth-shattering event (or precipitate one!) while toodling through Tiananmen Square…I hear Mao rolling over in his mausoleum!
Xie xie ("Shay shay" …Thanks!) for sticking through this…
NIHAO!
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ROLANDE & ANGUS
non-member comment
Loved your perceptions and observations.....Kansas it is not!