Several more notes from our briefing last evening include the following:
Firstly, we are advised not to drink the water but the ice and vegetables are safe. (We remain skeptical about this so are not planning to use the ice or eat the fresh vegetables. Wonder how they can ascertain safety of ice and veggies...)
Secondly, in an emergency, a horn will blare and bells will be rung. If in cabin, bring life jackets that are stowed on shelf in closet and go to the bar on the fourth deck. If not in cabin, go directly to the bar. (We wonder about the choice of location...)
Our cabin attendants are young women named "Bella" for our cabin and "Spring" for the cabins of Gail and Anna plus the Vertizes.
Richard got up early to go to tai chi, taught by the doctor on board, Dr. Liu.
Breakfast buffet is served on the first deck aft. Our travel group is assigned to sit together. Our ship is underway as of early this morning after permission was granted. The flooding has apparently altered ship traffic in recent weeks due to the fast, strong currents which can pose problems for ships that are underway.
Richard attends the talk about Chinese medicine that Dr. Liu gives at 9 a.m. Anna and I take the opportunity to sit on the little balcony outside of our cabin and gaze at the incredible vistas on either bank as we move by quickly, overlooking a great number of clumps of debris in the water and the muddy brown color of the river which Anna thinks looks like my coffee. The river banks meet the hills which rise up to small farms dotted with homes, some of which appear quite new and some of which appear quite old with very tired looking roof tiles. It's evident that the water level is very high when corn fields end in the water. We pass bridges, lush green landscape with banana plants and other greenery, shipyards with ramps that are presumably used to roll the ships down for launching, banks of high rise apartment buildings in passing towns. The ship traffic we see this a.m. looks similar to our ship but some of the boats are carrying cargo such as new cars.
Then we head to Deck 4 to hear a talk about the Yangtze and the three gorges entitled "Ancient Waters, the Timeless Yangtze" to be given by Aaron Jiang. This is stated on the plan of the day as an "informative introduction" about the Yangtze River. Aaron is a good speaker. He begins by describing the geography of the region: The Yangtze is the 3rd longest river in the world after the Nile and Amazon Rivers and the longest river in China. The Yellow River is located north of the Yangtze and runs generally west/east also such that the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers are only connected by the Grand Canal in the east of China. (Anna's finding place and orphanage are both alongside the Grand Canal in Yangzhou). The pinyin name for the Yangtze River is Changjiang for "long river". The Yangtze now flows from the west to the east, but, historically, at first it flowed from east to west followed, in the next stage, by part of the river flowing from east to west and another part flowing from west to east when the earth of China was a summit. 30 to 40 million years ago, when the Himalayan mountain range and Qinghai-Tibet plateau were formed, caused by Asia and the Indian subcontinent crashing into one another, the river to the west broke through the limestone mountains in the east, creating what is known as the "Three Gorges" alongside the Yangtze fixing the flow from west to east. The 3 gorges are named Qutang (8km long), Wu (45km long), and Xiling (76km long). The Yellow River used to be known as the cradle of China, but, with the discovery of ancient civilizations that lived around the Yangtze River far earlier, Chinese archeologists now concur that both rivers are the cradles of Chinese civilization.
One of these civilizations is known as the Ba people who lived between 2000 and 3000 years ago, and were responsible for burying people in coffins and somehow placing the coffins in caves in the cliffs alongside the gorges. These are known as "hanging coffins". It remains a mystery as to how the coffins were placed in the caves, but several theories exist including that the water table was higher in ancient days or that the coffins were lowered in from above. These coffins were made with namu wood. Some but not all of the hanging coffins were removed before the dam was completed. Others have been washed away as the river level has risen as a result of the dam completion.
It is pointed out to us that China is shaped like a rooster with Hainan and Taipei being the claws. 30% of the Chinese population depend on the Yangtze River directly. It also supplies China with 40% of agricultural production, 80% of China's inland river traffic, 40% of industrial production, 25% of total cropland, and 70% of grain. (I have paraphrased the above info from Aaron's very nice handout).
During our voyage, we will cover about 400 miles from Chongqing to Yichang. Recent, unprecedented flooding since the dam was built downstream has altered the ship traffic. The locks have been closed in recent days. One of the sister ships to this one is too big to go up river because of the flooding and turbulence. We learn that there are 130 folks on this cruise ship.
Aaron adds that there are sturgeon in the upper reaches of the Yangtze, there used to be dolphins in the middle reach of the river but they're likely extinct now though there are porpoises, and there are alligators in the lower reaches of the river.
Regarding Chinese cuisine, "hot pots" had their origin here. (I don't believe we enjoyed this fare on the trip).
After Aaron concludes his talk today (- he will talk about the dam construction and controversy tomorrow so stay tuned...), he encourages us to go forward outside on the bow as we pass by the town Fuling, part of which was submerged after the dam completion down river. People there were relocated to buildings that were built for them with apartments inside that were larger than what they left. Fuling was the town featured in the book River Town by Peter Hessler, an American who lived in Fuling for several years in the 1990s. Several of the other tourists on this cruise highly recommend this book. Aaron points out that the Chinese government built an underground museum in Fuling to preserve relics of carvings that would have been submerged in water as the river rose after the dam was built. We are not scheduled to stop to see it but see two large, concrete tubes that go into the water alongside a long set of steps that appear to rise from the water going up to the town. (As I write this, I realize that I'm not sure that the underground museum is completed yet. ? It may just be that access to ship traffic is precluded due to the underground structure). Along the river, we will see other long sets of steps come up from the river to towns. These steps are clearly old, from a past dynasty of one or another but am not sure which one. Buoys along the Yangtze are fishing boats attached to moorings with red buoys set inside the boats. The huge clumps of trash and debris in the Yangtze are astounding in terms of amount and content. Anna tells us later that she saw a bloated dead pig. Richard saw the lid of a coffin, pointed out by our guide Aaron, followed by the container of a coffin a short while later.
During the lunch buffet in the dining room which is surrounded by windows so we don't find that we have to miss any passing scenery, our ship docks alongside another ship of the same vintage as ours. It's done so smoothly that one would hardly realize it. We are at Fengdu where we exit the ship through another and pass by open, large bowls of vegetables that are in a stage of preparation. Members of the crew are alongside to assist us if need be though assistance is negligible as we get off the ships, I notice. We go ashore via a long series of ramps that have been connected to one another for passage. As I look ahead of me, the single file line stretches way ahead and is notable for the use of umbrellas as parasols for protection against the sun and heat. Many of the ramps are of ample width, but others are pretty narrow. The railings that do exist don't appear to be in good repair but are rusted and a bit wobbly. The final, approximately 10 foot ramp is about 2 feet wide and there is no railing. Hmmm... At this point, we climb a very long, wide set of stairs: It's not a hard climb, because the step depth is maybe about 4 inches deep or so all the way up to the top where we climb into open, large golf cart looking vehicles to go a short distance where we are dropped off to walk through an area with lots of hawkers selling souvenirs (- I buy hats for Anna and me since I had neglected to think to bring them with us to shore) to the bottom of a tram lift that's like a ski lift. Two by two, we take a pleasant ride to the top where we gather as a group to take a tour of Fengdu.
It's beastly hot and very difficult to understand our guide so I have a difficult time following her explanation of the large, unattractive, painted demon figures behind glass in the temples atop this hill known as Ming Mountain. The collection of Buddhist and Taoist temples up here is known as "Ghost City". The paint colors on the temples and the rooflines hold my interest. Taoist teachers here then were two officials of the imperial court whose names together sound in Chinese like "King of Hell". It was felt that they became immortal, hence became known as "Ghost City". This was practiced 1700 years ago, during the Eastern Han Dynasty. It employed the use of witchcraft, so many aspects of this tour include little snippets of ways to stay lucky. During the Ming Dynasty, about 1300 years ago, Buddhism was introduced here.
This whole area once overlooked the town of Fengdu, but, in 2003, before the town was submerged by the Three Gorges Dam reservoir, the residents were relocated to a "new, larger version of Fengdu located across the Yangtze River on the south bank. Where the old town of Fengdu had a population of around 50,000 people, the new relocation city is home to approximately 100,000". So the handout tells me. We heard over and over again that people didn't mind too much, because their new abodes were so much larger than the ones they were used to.
On our way back to the Victoria Queen from Ming Mountain, Richard stops at one of the vendors to buy a pair of wild blue and white Hawaiian shorts to round out his wardrobe for this hot weather. Anna and I plot to take some photos of him in his new get-up, knowing that James and Ross will be much amused.
Once back on the ship, we rest up and get ready for the Captain's Welcoming Reception on Deck 4 followed by dinner in the dining room on the first deck aft. Later, back on Deck 4, the bar area, there is a "Chinese Dynasties Show" which includes an overview of customs and traditional costumes from "regions and periods of Chinese history". The following list is in order of costumes (to facilitate matching our photos with the correct region/period in China): Han, Qing, Tang, Ming servant and noble woman, 19th century - umbrellas, Qing - high collars, north China - green and red, modern China, Yi - one of minorities, Qinghai - source of Yangtze/cowboy hats, Qingjiao (?) - red with black bodice, Bai (?) couple - tea/headdresses, Miao (?) - green and blue/wide brimmed hats, Inner Mongolia - pink and green/tall hats, Yao - southern China, then, of course, this would be the perfect place to add a photo of Richard in his Hawaiian shorts. Off to our cabins we go for the night.
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