China & Tibet (cont...)

April 21

Amy met me in the lobby around 8:30AM & we went down to the nearby harbour. She made arrangements for me to be picked up at the Yichang Harbour, and got me a room at the Yichang International Hotel. I thanked her for her help, and boarded the "Yangtze Princess". There was a huge breakfast spread layed out in the dinning room, and I filled myself up with bacon, hashbrowns, orange juice and croissants. Western food on the western boat! The room was as good as any of the hotels I had stayed in, granted a bit smaller, but hey, I had my own bathroom! There was even laundry service on the boat, which I took advantage of. It was pricey, but hey, it had to be done.
There were three interpreters/guides on the boat - one English, one German, and one Chinese. Samuel was the English guide. He found me some cigars, and after we cast off, I spent the morning on the foredeck enjoying the view as I read the latest Jack Reacher novel by Lee Child. It was rather foggy, so there weren't any good opportunities for pictures, for now. I grabbed a nap and skipped lunch.
One of the things I noticed as we cruised down the river were several white markers on the banks. I didn't realise their significance until I attended a seminar put on by Samuel about the Three Gorges Dam Project. These markers showed where the water level would sit when Stage III of the TGD was completed. Presently, the water level is at 127m above mean sea level, and it would eventually rise to 175m ASL. There were several communities that were relocated or abandonned due to the eventual flooding.
Here's a few facts I gathered from the seminar... The Yangtze River is the third longest river in the world (the Nile and Amazon take first and second respectively). There are 400 million Chinese that inhabit the Yangtze's watershed. There are plans to divert some of the Yangtze's waters to the Yellow River to the north. this would be done from Chongqing and Yichang, on the downstream side of the dam. There have been a reported 1.2 million people displaced by the completion of Stage II, although this seemed to me a low number considering the above mentionned statistic of 400 million people residing in its watershed... I'll continue on with more mind-numbing numbers as we reach the dam itself.
We stopped at a spot they called "Ghost City". Here was a town that had been leveled and relocated to the other side of the river high up on the banks. There was a Taoist and Bhuddist temple above this "Ghost City" and we trekked to the top to take in the view and the temples. Unfortunately, the majority of these temples and structures had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, and so the reconstructions were made of cast concrete, and the statues looked more Disneyland-like than authentic. Mind you, I had just been in Tibet and seen the real temples, and genuine Bhuddah statues. There were gift shops here as well, which I felt also spoiled the atmosphere. I saw a white and blue porcelin urn here that I wish I had bought, but hey, I would be in Shanghai in a couple of days and there's bound to be a lot more choice there!
We returned to the boat, and the captain was at the entrance of the dinning room greeting all his passengers. Dinner was a Chinese meal, and it was very good! We were all given a glass of champagne to celebrate our first day cruising on the Yangtze. I signed up for an early morning excursion to the Stone Treasure Stockade.

April 22

The excursion was cancelled this morning because the fog was too thick. There was an announcement over the PA system that we would be passing through the first of the three gorges in about ten minutes. I grabbed a quick shower and made my way to the lower fore-deck to take in the Qutang Gorge. It was only 8km long, and so we passed through it quickly. If you look at the picture to the left, and use a little bit of imagination, the spiked tops of these hills look like the back of some mythical creature diving into the river...
The mountains faded away just in time for breakfast. After filling myself up, I went to the top floor to take in the view from there and struck up a conversation with one of the artists selling his "inside-painting snuff bottles". I watched a video showing the process of making the snuff bottles. It's quite a laborious process. The bottles are turned, not blown. Surfaces can be left clouded or made clear, depending on the sanding and finishing process. Then the painting begins. Very fine brushes are used, and inserted into the bottle and the inside surface of the bottle is painted. I was very thankful for the time this gentleman took to explain the process, and he was happy to practice his English. As we chatted, there were a couple of "fast-boats" that sped by. These Russian built hydrofoils would make the three day journey that we were taking in just 11 hours, but I was told that it's not the most comfortable ride. Plus, you don't really get to see the Gorges properly travelling that fast!

The sun was trying to push through the fog as we entered the next gorge, the Wu Gorge. This second of the three is 45km long. I tried to imagine what this area would look like in a few months. The river is scheduled to rise to 175m in October 2006. There are other benefits from the dam apart from the copious amount of electricity it will generate - the Yangtze will become more navigable by the large boats, and it will control a flooding problem that has plagued the area for centuries. There has been documented evidence that the creation of these large-scale dams disturbs the local atmospheric conditions. Hence the fog will get thicker... There are also reports of more earthquake activity due to the saturation of the land. Furthermore, there is concern from environmentalists that the river's flow will be reduced to such an extent that the water will not be able to properly re-oxyginate itself. Currently, there are no less than 40 villages and towns and about 400 factories that dump their waste and chemical by-products into the river. The world's largest dam will also create the world largest septic tank... There are several species of fish that will suffer from the dam's existance. But more on that when I get to Yichang.
After lunch, we stopped at the port of Badong where we transfer to a smaller boat to travel up one the tributaries of the Yangtze. We cruised by shear cliffs. There were some caves high up in the cliffs where, we were told, the locals would place their dead. The bodies were in coffins and often there were swords or spears left with them to take to the next world. Several of these treasures will be lost with the rise of the waters.
After about 45 minutes, we deboarded the small cruiser and hopped into traditional skids powered by the locals, the Badu. There were six men to steer and row the boat. We went up a fast- flowing creek until the boat tagged the rocky bottom, at which point four of the Badu men hopped out and put on harnesses with a long rope attached to a small mast on the boat. They dragged us up the rocky stretch of water until we came to a deeper section where we crossed the creek to the other bank. Again, the fellows hopped out and dragged us to a deeper area where we turned the boat into small rapids, and rode them down back to our shuttle boat.
We were back onto the Yangtze Princess by about 5:30 that evening. The farwell supper was interesting - the captain came around to each and every table to toast us a good journey. There were 12 tables, and the captain drank a glass of champagne at each one. I'm not sure if he had a substitute drink or not - this would seem unlikely, for the Chinese have great pride in their drinking. I had witnessed a hilarious lunch at a restaurant in Beijing where a table of businessmen were toasting each other quite loudly and getting hammered. They waitresses giggled nervously when they caught my eye watching the spectacle unwind. One of the businessmen came over to offer me a cigarette, and I politely refused, and with a bow and a smile, he returned to his table to go on drinking. It looked like the whole endeavour was to show each other and the surrounding patrons just how much liquor they could consume. There were comb-overs flying everywhere. What a riot. Anyways, I wondered to myself if we would have a drunken captain at the wheel for the rest of the trip!
Tonight, we would be passing through the locks of the TGD. There are five locks, and it took about four hours to go through them all. They are huge... As you can see from this picture, there's a similar cruise boat ahead of us, and there was a coal barge behind us. These locks could accomodate six boats the size of the Yangtze Princess. Unreal. The doors to the locks were massive - I'm sure that they surpassed the footprint of my 1200 square foot house... After passing through a couple of the locks, I called it a night. Tomorrow we would take a tour of the dam itself.

April 23

I woke up to the the sound of blarring horns as we drifted into port. With the boat tied off, we hopped on a bus from Sandouping to the dam. We had a very cheerful guide, Maxwell House (no joke!) who happened to be one of the millions of people displaced by the dam project. We made two stops at the dam - one just below it where a park had been built, and the second on a hill overlooking the dam-site.
Dozens of massive electrical towers were lined up on the hills beside the dam. The dam is just over 2km long. At its base, it is 190m wide, and 18m wide at the top. It stands 185m high. Once completed, there will be 26 turbines generating 84.7 BILLION kW/hr per year. That's 15% of China's total need! Most of that electricity will be going to Beijing and Shanghai. At the interperative center, there is this model of the project. To the right are the huge locks. Between the locks and the dam is where the interperative center is. Just to the right of the dam is the high-speed boat lift for smaller boats. And of course, to the left of the lift is the dam itself.
Our bus had to stop a couple of times as a motorcade would drive by. Maxwell told us there was a "big potatoe" visiting the project today! Unfortunately, the "big potatoe" couldn't do anything about the weather - thick fog blanketed the area. Because of this fog, I couldn't get a good shot of the enitre span of this incredible engineering marvel.
We returned to the Yangtze Princess for the final leg of the cruise. I finally saw some traditional Chinese junks, and snapped this shot of them. We reached Yichang's docks by noon, and as Amy promised, there was a guide waiting for me there. She had a trainee with her as well, but she didn't say much. I checked into the hotel, and grabbed a bite to eat. I had asked the guides if there was anything of interest to see in the city, and they suggested a few places we could visit. So they came back to the hotel in the late afternoon, and we went to visit a museum and a fish hatchery. The museum was very similar to the one I visited in Xi'an, but of course much smaller. The interesting thing about this museum was that all the relics here had been found on a small island that has been swallowed up by the Three Gorges Dam Project. The process of selecting a suitable site for the dam took into consideration several factors, but one of the deciding factors for its present location was the island of Zaobuo (sp?). This island allowed for the dam to be built in two stages laterally, and so the Yangtze did not have to be completely diverted in one stage. Before the contruction began, the island was excavated and the relics found placed in this museum. With the dam nearing completion, the museum is all that is left of that island.
We then went to an amazing hatchery that was founded to preserve several endangered species affected by the dam. The biggest star attraction is the Chinese Sturgeon. They are huge! The largest ever recorded weighed in at 500kg, and measured over 5m long. There are also Yangtze River Dolphins - maybe a meter in length, with a brownish skin. Their heads reminded me of a beluga whale rather than the bottle-nose dolphins. There are also Yangtze porpoises, and to my surprise Yangtze alligators. I had no idea that there were alligators in China, but there they were! They were small, maybe a meter in length, but it was still cool to see these freshwater reptiles.
I asked the tour guide to take me shopping for blue and white porcelin, but I had no luck finding anything I liked. On our way back to the hotel, we were passed by a motorcycle with a huge pig strapped to the back of the bike - still alive and looking very uncomfortable. It was both an amuzing and disturbing sight to see - certainly not something I'd see cruising around in a cab in downtown Calgary!
I had supper at the hotel - there is a revolving restaurant on the roof. I finished my book, and found myself officially out of reading material. Well, I'm sure I'll be able to find an English bookstore in Shanghai tomorrow.