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Published: October 13th 2009
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The Story about Ping
Even though Maya can recite the book from memory she still loves to have it read, over and over. From Dianne:
Our journey up the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) began many years ago with a special picture book, The Story of Ping, written by Marjorie Flack. Ping was a little duck that lived on a “wise eyed” boat on the Yangtze River. As we read and reread this story to our children and then our grandchildren, we never imagined being able to journey through time on this special river. The last time I read the book was to Maya and Jamie during our time home this summer. And now - just a little over a month later - we were able to take a cruise up the Yangtze River. The images of the past would meld with the realities of the present as we experienced the third largest river in the world.
From Peter:
The trip started as usual with a driver at 5:30am. Gasp. But this is the best way to get to the airport. We checked through security and were off on our National Holiday Week adventure. The flight to Wuhan was uneventful and we were met by our tour guide who told us that, instead of having to take a public bus where we would have
Yangtze Princess
Our cruise ship. Room for 200 passengers but only 30 on this trip due to the 60th Anniversary. We were told everybody stayed home. to sit beside people who love to smoke, we would have our own bus for the four hour drive to YiChang where the cruise ship starts. Bonus! An 18 passenger bus for four people!
We were met by a new guide who took us to an outdoor noodle restaurant then a supermarket so we could buy snacks and drinks for the cruise. We were advised to buy supplies in YiChang as only meals were covered on the cruise and extras were “expensive”. After a trip through a neighboring museum it was off to the boat. We checked in, saw our rooms and met to decide on a plan. The boat would leave early in the morning so we had the evening to ourselves.
We needed to find a restaurant for dinner so started walking - figuring if we walked around the block outside the terminal we would find something. There were no restaurants with pictures so we finally decided on one and went in. With our limited Chinese we managed to order four dishes that rated 3.5 out of 4. And lots of beer because they were quite spicy hot. After relaxing on the sun deck (it was
Lunch on the street
Lunch for four at a noodle place on a side street in YiChang. $1.50 for the whole meal. after 9:30 pm) we decided to call it an evening.
The ship accommodates 200 passengers and was full the weeks before and after our cruise but for our upstream journey there were only 30! That’s about 3 staff for each passenger! We believe most people did something else for National Holiday Week because Thursday of that week was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. Big celebrations in Beijing; you may have seen them on TV. We certainly saw nothing but.
When I looked out the window of our stateroom the next morning I was disappointed to see how grey it was. After I put in my contact lens I realized it wasn’t bad weather but the cement wall of the lock we were passing through on our way past the first dam on the river. It was close enough to touch!
It’s a small cruise ship so meals were at a set time. The four of us were seated with two Americans who also teach English in China. There were about 8 Germans and the rest Chinese. We looked kind of lost in the dining room for 200 but we had great service and
Lunch hosts
They were very happy to have us visit. They also wanted to take our picture! fantastic meals. The best part was the staff had time to talk to us. We spent many hilarious moments discussing our attempts at Chinese.
The first port of call was the Three Gorges Dam site. Incredible. There are many pros and cons to this kind of project. If you are interested, connect to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Gorges_Dam to get more information than you can remember plus better pictures than we can provide. After the tour we started through the 5 locks. Sitting on the sun deck we got a blow by blow description of how the locks worked. Not surprisingly, it was pretty much the same as what I taught the students in Canadian Studies about the locks on the St Lawrence. After the second lock, the announcement said mainly the rest of the trip through the locks was “same old, same old” and didn’t repeat it for each lock. They are still finishing the ship lift portion of the same which will lift a ship weighing up to 3,000 tons in 40 minutes! Our 10,000 ton ship took four hours to go the same distance.
The second port of call was the Shennong Stream tributary of the Yangtze. We took
Lock Lineup
Six boats fit into each lock as we headed up stream. Quite a production lining everyone up. a smaller boat up the tributary then even smaller boats up another stream. We got a hint of what it was like before the dam went in. The river guides are very friendly, have plenty of local knowledge and very good English. Because of our small numbers we had plenty of access to them. Not much up here but scenery. Very peaceful.
The third stop was Fengdu where the devil lives, according to Chinese legend. They say that spirits go to heaven, and evil goes to Fengdu. The town is overlooked by Ming Shan Hill, home of Tianzi, the King of the Dead. The only people here are those who make a living from visiting cruise boats and there were lots of them. They didn’t make much of a living from our small contingent.
During the afternoons we had presentations on a variety of topics. We really enjoyed the one on painting pictures on the inside of small snuff bottles. The evening shows were a little odd because of the small number of customers. The one dance party was well attended…. by off duty staff! It did make for a lively gathering. The “Talent Show” was attended by
Close fit
Pretty tight fit. We were that close to the wall on the other side. only the 6 North Americans. Luckily there were also some staff performers. It was still fun.
We pulled into Chongqing in the later evening. It is a major city with unbelievable lights, especially after being in the Gorges which are much like going down the B.C. Coast, rocky, treed and largely deserted. We spent the night in our floating hotel then a new guide picked us up for a quick tour of the city and a drive to the airport. We saw just enough to make us think a trip back to Chongqing would be worth it. Maple Leaf has a new school here. If Dianne has to visit it sometime, maybe we can arrange a weekend visit.
Our driver took us back to our apartments Friday evening to rest up for the return to work on Monday. Except for me. Saturday we hit IKEA again to buy more furniture for our home office. I managed to put a second chair together without smashing my toes.
Back to Dianne:
And so our journey ended. The images of the past were still there in the smaller gorges where the boat trekkers paddled, the ancient coffins were tucked away
Lock cowboys
The workers have to tie up to the side of the lock as we wait our turn. The cables are very heavy and have to be thrown just right. It took three of them quite a few tries to get it looped over the post. There was much laughter and good natured razzing between the workers. And cheers from the observers when they finally got it. in the cliffs, the people burned dead branches to gather ashes for fertilizer, and in the treasures that were collected and now housed in museums. The images of the present and future were evident in the massive Three Gorges dam, the “instant” cities which housed over a million people each, the many spectacular bridges, and the glitz and bright lights of Chongqing, our last port of call. And through it all - the beautiful full autumn moon shed its light over the river.
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