Whats Left of the 3 Gorges

My friend Angie (props) said that maybe I should not take the river cruise down the Yangzi river and through the 3 gorges, but maybe I should just go to some of the towns along the river and spend alittle time there. After doing it, I dont know how much i agree because I basically spent all the time traveling between the towns on a dirty boat on the river, but then again, I think i did have a more intimate Chinese experience, more stories, and I saved about 1000 US dollars...so I guess it was sound advice and we can continue to be friends. Thanks Angie.

Where do I start. How about with my opinion: The gorges were very nice, but to a naturalist like myself, it was hard to appreciate, because no matter how big the mountains looked, I always wondered what they would look like when the water was low. The water was 150 meters higher than it originally was. Its just like all the books said, its still amazing, but what it must have looked like before... However, I cant hate on it completely because supposedly when the dam is complete, it will supply one 10th of China's electricity, which I think is already a larger percentage of renewable energy than all of the different types of renewable energy in the US combined. I could be wrong.

I found (with my limited Chinese skills) that many of the people living in the river towns dont like the dam, but many of the people in YiChang, the city on the "low water" side of the dam think it is great. (Obviously). I dont know if they felt they had to say they liked it, but the Chinese seem to take pride on having the largest or best "shenme shenme" (whatever). Therefore, if i understood correctly, many people would tell me that they like it because of a number of reasons, but one of which was that they are proud it is the largest in the world. Everyone seems to acknowledge the fact that China needs energy, and this is good energy because it is clean energy. Classic realization of pros and cons of renewable energy.

So I flew into Yi Chang, as I said before, the city on the "low water" side of the 3 gorges dam. This place was starting to look more like home in terms of terrain and population density. I told my cab driver i wanted to go to Wushan, and he immediately told me to get on a overnight boat. So I did.

This was my boat.


This is the foreigner boat that I didnt ride.

My boat was the chinese boat, so by the end, I was soooo sick of people spitting and smoking and littering over the side of the boat that I was ready to go home. I bought a second class (of 4 classes) ticket, but luckly i was upgraded by the staff for free to a first class cabin. I thought: "I wonder if this place has roaches," but then I was all: "nah, we're on a boat" However, I did find that my room had big fat ones. They would come out of the cracks between the wall and the floor, and also out from beneath my bed. I tried to get a picture, but they were too fast. That night I hung my food like they tell you to do when you are camping in bear country and i slept in my clothes on top of the sheets. I kept the lights on because I hear the roaches come out in the dark. I still woke up in the middle of the night to look over at the other bed and I saw a fatty running across the covers and onto the wall. Wish I could have gotten a picture in time. The river and gorges we passed through were very pretty though.


Little Three Gorges
Arrived in Wushan in the morning really really tired so I found a hotel and took a nap. The next day I set up a trip to the Little Three Gorges, which is a seperate smaller boat ride that departs from Wushan. It was actually very very nice... alittle touristy, as are all organized trips in china, but nice. Unfortunately, I kept wondering what it must have looked like before the water came up. You can see a line of death where the water once raised to.

Wushan
There was something really nice about Wushan, not much to do, but it was quiet and pleasant.

After Wushan, I caught another boat to Fengjie. When I arrived in Fengjie, I didnt know i had arrived. I thought we were getting off the boat to stretch, but then someone asked me, "where are you going?" I said, "Fengjie" then they said, "THIS is Fengjie!".... which seems to be how i have been living for the past 8 months.

Fengjie
If i thought Wushan was quite, Fengjie was even quieter, however, it is the home of the scene off the back of a 10 kuai bill...which was more or less:

Famous palace Bai Di Chang (on an island in Fengjie)

One of the highlights of traveling by yourself is the people you meet, and unexpected things that happen to you. First, Fengjie is so small, there are no taxi cabs, only guys on motorcycles who will drive you around for a small fee. When I went to leave Fengjie, I wanted to ride the fast boat back to Yi Chang (4 hours vs. like...19), but the fast boat did not leave from Fengjie, so a guy who was very helpful said he would take me out to the boat station a couple of towns down the river...it was kind of one of those "small town acts of kindness" that get lost in daily life. There is something about riding with a relative stranger on the back of a motorcycle that epitomizes freedom (as long as it is the right stranger and he drives safely). By the way, just so no one "moms" me, the chinese drive very very slowly because they drive alot more carefully than we do in the states...less rules, so more caution. You get to see places you would not otherwise get to see....kind of like on Motorcycle Diaries.

Then I got on the Russian highly polluting fast boat.

It lifts out of the water once it gets going fast.

One thing I didnt know I would be seeing was the life cycle of coal.

From the mine it goes to a holding place, then onto the ship.

It either goes to the factory to burn

...or to workers who press it into little nuggets.

...then the nuggets go to meat roasting shops or other private use.

Pig leg shop

Yi Chang

Back in Yi Chang I was at a loss for things to do, so people recommended I go to another minority village. It wasnt as cool as the others in Guangxi and Guiyang because it was incredibly touristy, but it was still pleasant.

Sucks to be a cow.

Corn

I like this guy and his facial hair.

This guy was one of the 6 others in my tour group.
He was really nice and I thought the design on his shoes was amusing.

After I got to know him alittle, I told him that I thought the design on his shoes was hardcore. He said, "what is it?"
He said, "I didn't know what it was"

Section on Oddities:

Depressing Snoopy bags

Many Chinese people fear the rain and sun. Even if their solutions are not the most effective, they still insist on stressing about the elements. The worst part is the bags of course ended up over the side of the boat

Old man walking and talking to his baby duck.

The Dam

The next day I went to see the 3 gorges dam, which was a let down because I thought you could go inside the dam and see all the stuff. Instead, you just go to various scenic spots around the dam.

One of the spots they took us to was a park to pay tribute to the construction and the lands lost during the flooding due to the dam, which I thought was a pathetic attempt at reconciliation, but they did have a very large dump truck that was used in the construction of the dam...

I took the dam tour in the morning because I thought i had a plane ticket in the afternoon. I paid 100 kuai to get out to the airport, waited around for my plane, then when i gave the ticket to the lady she said, "this is a ticket for may 11." I said, "yeah, whats today?" and she said, "the 10th." Mom, remember when i forgot it was your birthday? I didnt forget that Nov. 4th is your birthday, but just that today was November 4? Well it happened again.

People would ask me to take pictures of them, then would offer to take pictures of me.

When I stood out to take this picture with my hands in my pockets,
the lady said, "No, like this..."