C & C globetrotting around the world…

The 3 Gorges Cruise was an adventure! First we had a hard time booking one, then we finally booked a tour recommended by the hostel. The organization was a little bit disappointing and confusing as we never really had an itinerary or even a booking confirmation in our hand but it  all worked out in the end. We drove by bus from Wuhan to Yichang, drove to the Dam and then we were brought to a show called “The 3 Gorges and the Yangtze River in a Flourishing Age”. It showed the history of the Yangtze River, how it used to flood the areas and how they built the dam. It was interesting because you had a screen in the back with pictures, then some text on the side in Chinglish explaining and on stage there were dancers doing dances and stunts illustrating the story. For example, at the part when they were building the dam, there were men in construction gear doing acrobatics. The music was extremely loud and some parts were kitschy, but overall it wasn’t bad. What totally surprised us though is that close to the end, people got up and left while the performers were still on stage and before they had a chance to bow. We think in Europe or North America the performers would have cried! It’s a different culture. We then drove to our ship and embarked.

We don’t know if it was the foreigner bonus but our room was the nicest on the entire ship. When we booked, they asked us what class we wanted (1^st = 2 ppl per room; 2^nd = 4; 3^rd = 6), so we chose 1^st class. What we didn’t know, is that we got a deluxe room with a double bed, a couch, a desk, a wardrobe, washroom, shelf. Others also had 2 ppl rooms, but with twin beds and not all the other stuff. Although the carpet hadn’t been vacuumed in ages and the bathroom was not the cleanest, the rest was ok. We had boxed noodle soup in our room (bring your own) like most other Chinese. Some are actually pretty good and Christoph is an excellent cook. We slept on board and during the night the ship drove from Yichang through the Xiling Gorge, which is 80 km long and the least impressive (according to Lonely Planet).

Our journey along the 6300 km-long Yangtze River began. After the Amazon and the Nile, it is the longest river in the world. We “sailed” through the 200km of gorges which are said to have been carved by the legendary architect of the river: the Great Yu, the first emperor of the Xia Dynasty, 2205 BC. After he conquered the dragons that lived underground and caused floods, he has earned the title of “tamer of floods” and is also perceived as the “great-grandfather of China”.

After a month in China, we finally started having some more interesting conversations with the locals. It certainly helped that we were the only Westerners on the entire boat. A mix of broken English from some Chinese students, Cecilia’s Chinese and Christoph mimicking made it a very nice experience. The students had been very helpful since the staff didn’t speak a word of English and we didn’t know what was really going on. Other people just said hello and wanted to take pictures with us, but everyone was very nice and patient with us.

The first day of the cruise we got an early start. At 6am the speakers went on announcing breakfast and playing “Titanic” music. At 6:30 we took another ship to go up Shennong Stream, a river with a nice canyon and rated as an AAAAA Chinese attraction. In the canyon walls, we saw some suspended coffins that are believed to have been put there by an ancient tribe, but remain a mystery. At Mianzhuxia we then transferred to small traditional wooden boats of 15 people each. There were 2 rowers standing on each side and one in the back steering. There was also a girl in traditional costume as a guide. We went further upstream Mianzhu Gorge, a narrower gorge that was very nice. At some point 2 rowers got off the boat and pulled the boat from ashore for several hundred meters to demonstrate how it used to be done before the dam construction when the water was shallow. We saw pictures with the guys pulling naked, but ours didn’t take they clothes off. After the little boats, we watched a performance about the Shennong Stream and the Tujia minority group living in the area and Christoph and I realized that they have lots of legends and dances that are still very present in their culture, which is very interesting.

Back on the big ship, we then drove through the Wu Gorge, also called Gorge of Witches, which is 40km long and has mountains as high as 900m above the river level. The gorge is mainly covered in trees and shrubs with jagged peaks on the North side. Amongst them, the Goddess Peak and the Peak of the Immortals. It was nice and we enjoyed the views from the deck. We then drove past Wushan, a city built for all the people who were displaced by the rising waters due to the dam construction. A guy told us that the government was very proud of this 1 million inhabitants city that is only 5 years old. Pretty weird to see.

We then finally arrived at Qutang Gorge, also known as Kui Gorge. This is the most impressive of the gorges and it’s also the shortest with its 8km in length. As we drove through it, we saw its barren cliffs and the vertiginous slabs of rock rising on each side. At its narrowest it is 100m wide and it’s said that the water flows faster, but we found the water flows rather slowly, maybe because of the dam (the water rose 160m since).

On the last day, we got off the ship at Fengdu, also known as “Ghost City”. The original one (with nearly 2000 yrs of history) has been flooded due the the 3 Gorges Dam, but they are rebuilding one now up on Mingshan (Ming Mountain). The Ghost City combines the cultures of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism with the mystique of ghosts. A stupendous temple was erected on Ming Mountain depicting life in hell. It displays demonic images and torture devices and reflects the notion that good people will be treated well in the afterlife and that bad people will be punished by going to hell. In the Chinese vision of the afterlife, the dead (or ghosts) must undergo three major tests to enter the netherworld. These tests are taken at three locations – Nothing-To-Be-Done-Bridge; Ghost Torturing Pass and the Tianzi (son of heaven) Palace.

Although from a sight-seeing point of view the Three Gorges Cruise was not as amazing as we expected, it was still very very nice. We got to relax and most importantly we got to talk to Chinese. Being on a Chinese ship, we didn’t understand what the guides were saying, but the young students tried their best to translate and we also really got the experience the locals more than just when they’re spitting and shoving.

After our cruise, we arrived in Chongqing early in the morning and had an ongoing train to Xian in the evening, so we spent the day exploring the city. Chongqing means “double happiness” or “repeated good luck” in Chinese and is often ranked as the world’s largest city with its 32 million inhabitants (that’s right, almost the population of Canada), although the city itself only has about 4.5 million people and the rest are scattered in villages around, part of the administrative Chongqing. The city is growing at an amazing rate as traditional homes built on stilts are being razed to make space for new skyscrapers, which sprout seemingly overnight. The old porters now no longer have jobs, so they carry goods through the hilly streets on poles across they backs (and offer to carry your luggage too). We watched one carefully and it’s a very interesting technique the way they balance it all.

Our first stop: taking the cable car across the Yangtze River to see a different perspective. I am very proud of Christoph for having taken it (in both directions too!). As a reward, he got a haircut in some small barbershop. I think it was the first time the lady was cutting the hair of a Westerner as her husband took a pictures of it. The haircut was good though and only cost 30Yuan (probably 3 times more than for locals, but it’s less than 5$, so we can’t complain). We walked through this small neighbourhood on the hill with small alleys and it was pretty interesting. We then arrived at the top, where we went to the Taoist Arhat Temple (Luohan Si) sandwiched between skyscrapers. Luohan is the Chinese name for Arhat, a Buddhist term for people who have released themselves from the psychological bondage of greed, hate and delusion. Here we saw 500 terracotta arhats all with very different facial expressions and a corridor with intricate rock carvings. We then walked back to the train station and boarded our overnight train to Xian (11 hours). We only got tickets for seats this time, so we had a hard time sleeping, but the young people around us were very nice.