The Great River

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Morning came and the city sounds fill our cabin the air is heavy with humidity and we wander to breakfast after a very pleasant night sleep.The ship is filling up and is scheduled to sail at 9 but breakfast is served for those of us who boarded the night before.After breakfast Ann goes to the sun deck for Tai Chi instructed by Dr Liu who also soothes passengers with accupuncture (not a wise choice on a moving ship I think) as well as foot massages.The turnout is small but enthusiastic as the city and river come to life all around us. The river is alive and as busy a working river as one would every see i think with every description of vessel moving up and down.Whistles are the universal communication between vessels but we witness a close encounter of the almost crushing kind as an older cruise ship, belching black diesel smoke backs out of its berth moored to our ship and into the path on an inbound vessel.Much yelling and horn blowing and whistle shrieks seem to have no effect but by devine providence or well placed budda on the foredeck the cruise ship pulled away in the last moments and sailed away.We cast off at 9 and with three blasts of the horn sailed down stream on what could only be described as a river chocolate milk.The water is a brown churning mix of who knows what but certainly did not look like one would swim in it.The river is alive and ships a,d sanpans went their way along it and the city recedes as we sail down towards the three gorges.
We spend much of the day watching the river banks pass by.huge industries belching pollution sit there and cities of varying sizes.All along are markers to show the rising river levels as the effects of the Three Gorges Project come to pass. The river has been dammed further downstreem and by 2009 will have risen by 174 meters changing much of what we are seeing as we steam by the living shoreline.Much has already been moved ,much will be knocked down and much will be left to disappear under the rising waters.There is huge controversy about the project from many points of view and it is difficult to get a guide to speak about it.They all seem to share the opinion which sounds like the party line that the project will be a good thing for many with compensation and new housing.They do not grapple with the question of what does a life long dirt farmer do with compensation and a new apartment in Shanghai?
We have lunch and are sitting at table 8 with other traveller's.A couple from France another from Germany and one from Northern England.There are also three other Brits from Birmingham and Ann and I.A lively table and much fun.Food is wonderful served chinese style with many dished on a lazy susan and everyone picking and choosing with their chopsticks.We areagetting better all the time with the sticks.
During the afternoon we move around to watch the river on different decks.I have the unsettling sight of a dead body floating by the boat and when i report it am met with a sort of indifference.I think it was anyway but am not really sure where my reported sighting ended up.In the afternoon we visited a city that was spread across the two banks of the river but one side was the old city and was shcheduled to disappear so they were knocking it down by hand.Men with sledge hammers blow by blow to knock down buildings of many floors height.
The group visited the Ghost City a place that has existed since the Quing Dynasty but is now sort of a modern attraction with a devil's theme and ghosts and evil spirits ready to reach out and grab you if you are a bad person.
In the evening the Captain hosted a welcome dinner with toasts and fanfare.The food was again excellent and we all agreed a very good day was had by all.The Captain and crew were all very skilled and moved this vessel with great care and skill and it was a pleasure to greet the Man but that was as far as it went as my praise was not understood.Smiles and handshakes got the message across though I tell myself.
The evening is spent on the deck as Ann and i decided to skip the talent show and we watched the ships slip by us in the night their spotlights searching out the shoreline and the rumble of engines in the night.

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