The Road Goes Ever On: Two Days Before the Mast

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Two Days Before the Mast

Our first full day aboard ship, September 26, was interesting and fun. We got underway a bit later than scheduled, saw the first gorge, Xiling, and arrived at the Three Gorges Dam site by late morning. Buses took us first to the demo area and a peek at the locks, then on up to the main viewing area, done up in full contemporary Chinese fashion, huge, beautifully landscaped, monuments, fountains, observation towers, and the rest. Despite all the criticism, one can't help being impressed by the monumental scale of the undertaking. I took a picture of the provincial water resources management commission monument for my sister Carole, who works in water resource management in south Florida. Now this is a dam, Carole. After lunch, family-style with our group of independent travelers (non-tour folks), two Australian couples, one Chinese-American couple, and us, we went through the system of five locks, each raising us and three other ships about 30m at a time. It was awesome (really, awesome) watching the huge doors close and open, the rise (about a foot every 7 seconds), and so on. I guess I've just never been around anything so big..... By nightfall, we were on top, celebrating with a variety of pix from our cabin. Before dinner we attended the captain's welcome cocktail party, then dinner, then the crew talent show, including a good bit of traditional numbers. The Sichuan face-changing was particularly interesting. Our dining group is interesting and agreeable. One of the Australian couples works for Volvo in Beijing and is quite knowledgeable about China and the rest of Asia. Of course, much of the conversation bore on the ongoing financial melt-down, the American election, and so on. Everyone's watching CNN/Asia.

This morning, September 27, we cruised the middle gorge, the Wu, and then transferred to a smaller boat, and finally to motorized sampans, for exploration of the Lesser Three Gorges of the Daning River. Particularly interesting were the coffins perched high on the cliffs (well, the few the Cultural Revolution couldn't get to...), and (finally) the monkeys. By late morning the clouds had dispersed and we had a fine day, not at all warm. The Daning comes into the the Yangzi right at Wushan, a five-year-old city of 80,000. Much construction, buildings, bridges (bye-bye and hello bridges), roads, embankments, still going on. Seems like everything in China is either ancient or brand new, equally interesting, equally impressive.175m markers all over the place—marking where the river eventually will rise to...we are currently at 146m (above sea level; and perhaps 300-400 miles inland). Next was the Qutang Gorge, highest but shortest of them. After the Qutang, I got a haircut and beard-trim. Through an unfortunate miscommunication, it came out somewhat shorter than wanted. But for $7 I can wait for it to grow back. Next, and just before nightfall, came the Ghost City (abandoned now prior to the rising water) and Fengdu. We watched the sunset from the top deck and then repaired to dinner with our new friends.

The terrain through which we are passing—apart from the river, the gorges, the mountains (most under 1000m), is intensely agricultural. Terraces everywhere, groves, steps leading from the river to the tops of mountains, verdant everywhere except exposed rock (of which there is plenty). The Yangzi is impressive too—deep, wide, fast-flowing, muddy at this time of year. It is easy to see why it has been the backbone of commerce in China, and also why it has been such a killer river.

We are really enjoying the cruise—nice people, good food, great scenery—and most of all the opportunity to slow down and take it easy, particularly realizing that we will be in Nepal in just a week, in greatly changed circumstances.