The Yangzi River

Dec 28th 2004 - Dec 31st 2004

We left Chengdu at about 7:40am on a 2-3 hour bus ride to Chongqing. Seven hours later we arrived in Chongqing a city of 6 million people built on the Yangzi river. The bus trip was crowded, not by people, everyone had a seat. It was the fact that everyone brought all of their possessions and that we didn't store luggage under the bus where it should go(Who knows what crap was under there).The aisles were piled high with bags and a variety of stuff which made toilet stops interesting as everyone climbed on and over the seats to get off the bus. We were the first to get on so our bags got put to the back of the bus on the floor where they were to be covered in loogies, sunflower seeds and chicken feet bones. You can pretty much buy anything in a vacuum fresh bag here: Chicken feet, whitebait, duck necks, wings and feet, squid, a variety of fish (whole), swallow feet (small birds), marinated kebabs, and anything else you can think of. The whole 7 hours were filled with a series of Chinese kung-fu movies, made in Cantonese, dubbed in mandarin, and subtitled in mandarin. It was a good thing that the volume was at the maximum, so we could really hear the Bruce Lee like screams and sound effects. Even though we couldn't understand the language I think we would have had a hard time following anyway as the movies seemed to have 3 different plots completely unrelated to each other. They were not however lacking in acid-wash denim.

Our group (3 Aussie couples) got off the bus near the port, but not near our guide. We just stood there for 10 minutes or so until he found us. I think we were pretty easy to find, just follow the touts. We left our bags at the tour office and walked around Chongqing to get some food and money. We were taken to a 'cablecar' where we paid 2 yuan each to descend down the river bank 30 metres. Despite the fact that there are stairs.

The Yangzi

The Yangzi is the 3rd longest river in the world. It is 6400 kilometres long and it supports 400 million people. The Three Gorges Dam near Yichang is the largest Dam in the world, and when completely finished in 2009 it will back up the Yangzi for 550 kms, flood an area the size of Singapore and wash away the homes and livelihoods of up to 2 million people. Relocation packages are offered at about $3000US. It sets out to move economic growth away from the coastal cities into central and eastern China. The hydro-electric production will be the equivalent of 18 nuclear power plants and will be about 1/5th of China's current generating capacity. The construction of the dam has been controversial for many reasons, loss of homes, damage to the environment, and the loss of over 8000 cultural sites. Environmentalists claim that the Chinese are building the world's largest septic tank. The loss of river flow, agricultural and industrial run-off and untreated waste that pours in to the river will potentially create a giant sewer.

The cruise boat was like an oversized house boat. Painted in baby blue, it certainly wasn't a cruiseliner but was ok. We were in 2nd class and decided to pay a bit extra to have our own room, which meant we had two bunks to spread our crap over. We opened one of the cupboards and found our life vests, kindly donated by survivors from The Titanic. The boat left port at 8 o'clock and we briefly went out on deck to look at the lights of Chongqing.

Day 1 we were up at 5:30, and disembarked at 6:30 for our first stop, Guicheng (the abode of ghosts). Kel turned on the boat radio only to hear the love song from the Titanic, a bad omen? We walked through a small abandoned town full over crumbling apartment buildings that are being torn down before the river rises. It looked like a bombed out city in Europe during the 2nd world war. But there were still people living in the remains as there was laundry in the windows and plenty of touts along the way. Walking in the dark we travelled through the abode of ghosts said to be the place of devils. There were temples decorated with demons, devils, and grotesque things all built since the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD). There are also statues of various gods, the god of sunshine, the god of thanksgiving, and the god of health. The view of from the top was great, the sun was just rising over a foggy Yangzi. We walked by ourselves trying to stay ahead of the large Chinese tour groups with their guides blasting the history through their megaphones.

On the other side of the mountain was a place called Ghost Street. Historically a bazaar for the dead, but now a tout alley selling all the same crap. 'Hello, hello, you look, hello'. We walked up the 99 Immortal Stairs (I counted 114) and into a cheesy carnival-like series of rooms supposedly a re-creation of the netherworld and hell. There were many rooms each depicting a different legendary story, much like mythology. As we entered each room a sensor triggered the lights and screams. The displays were of demons and devils torturing those who had been bad in their previous lives. Oddly most of the torture victims were women. It was like a haunted ghost ride at the county fair (or Royal Show for the Aussies), complete with scary music, dark lighting and figures popping out at you (very slowly and jerky like). We reached the end and since we had been good in our past lives we were allowed to leave hell and back into reality. Maybe because we have been bad in this life, we had to make our way back past the touts and down to the boat.

We kept cruising down the river, and cruised right on past one of the sites we were supposed to stop at, the Stone Treasure Stockade, or Stone Village. It is over 2000 years old. There is a 12-storey wooden temple build to look something like a stone seal (a Chinese 'chop' used like a wax seal to sign artwork and documents). A Chinese man we were speaking with on the boat says that this site will be completely underwater once the dam is completed.

We spent the afternoon and into the evening out on the boat deck, enjoying the view of the Yangzi. Much of is hilly/mountainous covered with farmland and scattered homes here and there. We enjoyed a few beers and tried to conquer the Chinese art of cracking sunflower seed shells. We stayed out until dark, when we moved into the boat's 'poker room' to defrost, a room with small card tables covered in green felt, used for cards, mahjong, and Chinese chess. We sat and chatted with an American guy named Dave. He is from Colorado, and has travelled around the world twice, so it was great to hear some of his stories. We then tried the boat's dining room for dinner. We ordered cao fan, pretty much just steamed rice with some bok choy, but still tasty, and a nice change from instant noodles.

Around 8:00 pm, we got off the boat (in the dark, again) and explored an old temple along the banks, full of ancient Chinese calligraphy carvings, mainly made of stone and wood. They were pretty, especially the lettering, but we wished we could read them. There is a huge old 6-foot bell outside the temple, which Nige rang a few times by swinging a log into it (apparently a traditional method). He had been wanting to ring one of these huge temple bells ever since we saw our first one in Shanghai.

Back on the boat, we found out (after some effort) that there would be another stop around 2:00 am. So, off we went to bed, the alarm set for 1:45 am. Kel woke up, got dressed, and made her way out into the boat lobby to see what was going on. No one was around. After several trips around the boat, she finally went back to bed.

Day 2 we got up around 6:45 am after hearing a lot of activity going on. We got up on deck, only to find that we were going through the first of the Three Gorges, Qutang Gorge. No notice had been given to us. I had found out that there had been another stop the previous night around 11:00 pm, but we weren't given any information on this. The light came out just as we were leaving the gorge, enough so that we could see the spectacular view--steep cliffsides jutting out of the river along both sides. Qutang Gorge is the smallest of the three gorges. High up one of the cliff sides is Bellows Gorge where nine coffins were found high up in the cliffs. Some contained artifacts dating from as far back as 220 AD. We stayed out on deck all morning, again just enjoying the scenery, until we stopped at 8:30 am to transfer to a smaller boat.

We travelled up a tributary, heading for the Three Little Gorges. Flanked by towering cliff walls, it was so beautiful. The water here was no longer muddy brown, but a beautiful colour of cloudy jade green. We passed a few shack homes and farmers in their fields. These homes are literally in the middle of nowhere, and we could see no roads leading to them, just a small boat tied up on the river at the bottom of a steep path. In most first world countries, you'd pay $10 million for homes in these locations. We went through all three little gorges, the Dragon Gorge (or 'Drgon Gorge'), The Misty Gorge, and the Emerald Gorge. We even saw several monkeys along the cliffs. We were a bit suspicious when we noticed a pattern: the monkeys all congregated around the signs indicating 'The Abode Of Monkeys' and realised there was a huge pile of peanuts or something scattered all over the ground. Maybe a Chinese version of enhancing the Yangzi experience?

After the third little gorge, we then transferred to even smaller boats after stopping at a temple built high up in the cliffs. These were traditional-style fishing boats, seating about 20 people. Just to authenticate the experience, we all donned fluorescent orange life vests. We travelled up a tributary, only about 20 metres wide. We were able to get a closer view of the rocks, plants, and water. Along the way we passed many locals still living the traditional ancient lifestyle--we passed a small fishing boat with 3 women and 2 men singing a fishing song through megaphones directed straight at us, as well as an old man high on the rocks playing a Chinese flute (he only started as soon as he saw the boat approaching). As we turned around and headed back for the larger boat (not the main boat), we looked back and saw these traditional Yangzi inhabitants being picked up in motorboats to return to the docks. Also along the way were several men sitting in small huts, scattered along the banks at intervals. There was a 2-man blowup dinghy tied up in front of each person. They all had on the 'traditional costume' of fluorescent orange life vests, complete with a light, and a whistle. We can only assume that this is their version of surf lifesaving (I don't think many Chinese people can swim). Unfortunately, there was no Pamela or Yasmine running in slow motion along the banks. We returned to the larger boat, back up the Three Little Gorges, and returned to the main big boat.

We again spent the evening out on deck enjoying the views. We went through the Second Gorge, Wu Gorge, and the Third Gorge, Xiling Gorge. Out on the deck, there were 3 young guys from Tibet, who Nigel and Dave managed to speak with by using mostly charades. One of the guys went to his bunk room and returned wearing his traditional Tibetan dress and hat. They wanted photos with Nigel and Dave, and then gave them their addresses (in Chinese only) so that they could send a copy of the photo. One of these guys totally reminded us of Shannon Anderson from Sturt Lacrosse-he could have been his Tibetan twin. We really hit it off because the only thing they knew how to say in English was "I love you." They all had a few drinks and sang some Tibetan songs. Eventually a Chinese man who has lived in Sydney for 15 years came out on deck and kindly played the role of translator for both sides. Mai was travelling with his 10-year old son, Michael, an Aussie. Michael translated the Tibetan addresses from Chinese into pinyin so that we could read them. We found out the Tibetans were travelling to Shanghai to sell their wares. It took a bit of asking, but we found out their 'wares' were various animal products (all illegal in the West), used for medicinal purposes, i.e. tiger's penis and parts of other endangered species. We went back to their room where they showed us their passports, and one of them had photos of the Dalai Lama in it, though not the one we all think of, who is actually living in India. They had 2 photos: one was the old Dalai Lama, who died about 5 years ago, and one of a young boy who was chosen as the next Dalai Lama (now the current Dalai Lama). They explained that their old Dalai Lama that died around 5 years ago and the Dalai Lama in India are actually related in some way. They don't acknowledge the D.L. in India as their Dalai Lama, but recognize the boy as their Dalai Lama. Dave also told us a story about the Indian-based Dalai Lama: in India, a guy once said 'Why is the Dalai Lama travelling around the world when he should be here for his people?' Soon after, that person 'went missing' and has never been seen again. Interesting.

Around 10:30 pm we had the option to get off and take a tour of the dam. We thought that this fee was included in the fees we had already paid, but apparently it wasn't. We tried to sneak off the boat anyway, but were stopped before we even reached the gang plank. Nice try. We didn't want to pay the fee again, and didn't think it was worth it to see the dam in the dark anyway, so we just skipped it. After all, it will be here next time we're in China, whereas most of the other sites we've seen along the river will not. Nigel stayed up and watched the boat go through the first 2 of 3 locks, and Kel went to bed to try to get over her cold. Each lock held 4 boats/ships and went down approximately 15 metres each.

Although we had some frustrations with not getting what we paid for, and not being able to communicate with ANYONE about this, we still really enjoyed our few days on the Yangzi.