Touching and Rubbing

---

This morning we saw the biggest hydro electric dam in the world, next
week we'll be on the highest train in the world and in between I will
buy new socks, white ones. That, however, is to come.

After nearly a month on the road we began wearing down about a week
ago. Our pedometers have consistently indicated that we've been
walking upwards of 3-5 times our normal daily rate. While this is
awesome on the calves, the pace simply hasn't been sustainable in a
country as foreign as China where large coffees are difficult to come
by. After Suzhou we started incorporating more rest time, particularly
after a 20 hour train ride from Shanghai to Xian on seats we couldn't
believe weren't made of stone. What Aimee and I lost in lower body
sensation, we gained in flu like symptoms, so disembarking the train
and sneezing was a wobbly affair.

Since the last blog we've moved from Suzhou to Tongli to Shanghai and
then west to Xian and Chongqing, where we began the three day Yangtze
cruise.

Suzhou and Tongli were beautiful water cities. Suzhou's reknown for
its gardens, large canals and exploding laptop manufacturing industry
while Tongli is an infinitesimally smaller town with an intricate
system of small canals and tiny bridges. Like Venice, but unlike
Venice you could actually appreciate it without having your elbows
out; muscling your way through the crowd.

Shanghai was a modern western city, and thus as such wasn't actually
all that interesting. It was nice to catch a movie and appreciate
modern conveniences again, but something was lacking. Character maybe?
I did, however, have the pleasure of a subway security guard squeezing
my bicep and giving me the thumbs up after I'd paused momentarily to
look elsewhere. Likely the first and only time that will ever happen
to me 😊 Aimee and I agreed that Shanghai was certainly the most
livable city so far, with a minimum of transition if you ever moved to
China... and had some money.

Xian was left a touch unfulfilled as we were under the weather for the
three days we were there. Going inland eliminated the nice ocean
breeze we had been enjoying; temperatures were high and our noses were
runny. The main feature of Xian (Pronounced SheAnne) was the large
excavation and display of the Terracotta warriors. Those clay soldiers
from over a couple thousand years ago. Nothing can really prepare you
for the site of thousands of figures, sunken in pits below ground,
covered by a large aircraft hangar. Pictures don't do it justice, but
I'll post some when the internet is better. Xian also marked our first
Chinese massage, more on that to come.

It was difficult to really appreciate Chongqing, because it was
difficult actually seeing Chongqing. The city was one of the
'benefactors' of the Yangste Three Gorges dam, and is now exploding
with industry and surplus labour due to the influx of investment and
displaced peasantary. It is also exploding with massive pollution
levels that leave the city buried under a thick haze most of the year.
On the flip side the haze provides an excellent canvas for the
Chongqing evening laser light show! I don't know if it's me or the
carbon monoxide talking, but who's in for roller disco?

The Yangzte cruise was just what the doctor ordered. Food was
available on a regular schedule in buffet style proportions. Put a
buffet in front of me and I will eat myself stupid. Sure, on the first
day I may be able to understand calculus, but after three days of
buffet I'll just give you a toothy, slack jawed grin. The gorges were
beautiful, but apparently were more beautiful pre-dam when the water
levels were +50m lower and some of the gorges could only be navigated
by small wooden boat. We still thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and met a
lot of great people before ending it off with views of the biggest
hydroelectric dam in the world. Pretty damn impressive.

So I've written a fair bit and haven't even got to some of the good
situational stories or introspectives about China itself 😞 I'll end
with a brief description of the chinese massage we received in Xian.

The whole experience was a bit surreal. We went for the massages at
about 9pm, based on a recommendation from one of the front desk people
at the hostel. No one in the place spoke any english. The only word
they could say was 'massage', pronounced 'massagee', and the only
words we could say were of no use. Somehow we conveyed that we wanted
an hour massage, paid and went upstairs... where we were left in a
dark room, black lit, in front of a television for about 45 minutes
before anyone took any notice of us. Then the massage began. I got a
more 'original' version than Aimee as I was walked on, had my back
pinched like I was being zippered together, my hair pulled in chunks,
my tummy rubbed in a Winnie the Pooh type fashion till the chafing of
my chest hair became nearly unbearable and to top it off I had my
inner ear canals massaged. That's right, she stuck her fingers in my
ears and rotated them around for a minute or so. It was all very
strange but oddly quite satisfying. We slept like babies that night.

Anyway, we're in Guilin for the next couple days and then make the
trip up to Tibet for a week. I hope all is well with everyone.

Cheers,
Michael

---