PS I just received an email from a fellow traveler. A Canadian movie "Up The Yangtze" is being released this month. This is the website to find a theatre in your city.
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/playdates.php?directoryname=uptheyangtze&sort=state<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
it's the dark side to the cruise I enjoyed so much. It know there is one. It's not going to be in Nevada maybe I can see it in San Fran or Chicago if it's still around.
The Yangtze River Cruise was amazing. It was stunningly beautiful and awsome to be sailing through gorges with huge green mountains on either side of a winding river that provided unimaginable beauty at every turn. The river is flanked with rural life in many places, stairways along the cliffs that seem to lead to heaven, except they go over the mountain where there is sometimes farmland. The farmers walk down these steep cliffs to get on a ferry of sorts occasionally to buy or sell goods. Then they trek back up. Whew!!! We were told that many of those folks never leave their land locked area. A number of ethnic groups live along these waterways. There’s so much to tell. I just can’t now. We saw monkeys, incredible waterfalls, ancient structures, farms, oxen, lots of ducks on and near a tiny island farm, caves, formations, commerce, and the famous Three Gorges Dam. We went through a series of five locks, maybe three, I can’t even remember, the other two might be under construction?? The Panama Canal doesn’t come close to this accomplishment. At least four huge boats were in each lock at the same time. It’s enormous. We toured the grounds and buildings, one housed a model of the final construction. There too we saw manicured gardens on the grounds of the dam area that is still under construction. The dam will cause flooding of many of the places we saw, some work of flooding has already been done. One memorable bit of information was that every tree and every brick from homes being displaced was being removed and replaced to higher ground or relocated. I found that to be amazing. It’s not a happy ending for farmers whose families worked the land for generations but many of these people are being given special privileges, pensions and other amenities to make up for their loss. For example, healthcare is no longer free for most of China except for these folks and many farmers in general. Their pensions have put them in a more elite category. Again, so much more to tell. One more detail about the dam, the first reason for it’s being built is to prevent another flood like one not too long ago affecting small cities and many farms. The US is at the moment suffering from a 500 year type flood across the Midwest. So this is one solution for the Chinese. In addition, it will generate huge amounts of energy. So, who are we to criticize when our infrastructure is falling apart? Frankly, I thought the gorges were going to be flooded to the tops of the mountains but not so. There were signposts along the way showing the future height of the river. Newcomers taking a cruise will not know the difference, except there will be missing the little islands and farms that we got to see.
Chonquing, its airport in particular, is close to Viet Nam, so it had the strictest of airports regarding visas, passage and luggage. It’s the one place in the interior that I had to pay for excess baggage. Off we went to Guilin. I don’t think I mentioned the weather. While good weather preceded us whereever we went, most places were humid and got hotter as we headed south again.
Guilin was our final stop before Hong Kong. It’s in the southwestern part of the country. It’s quite different from anything we had yet seen. It’s famous for its unusual landscape and formations and is also verrry green. We saw rice paddies in this area. We were taken to one where we got to get out and be up close in the field. Guilin is famous in the Far East as a spa resort town. It’s growing and the main part of the city is colorful with lights and parks that make it memorable. We arrived sometime during the earthquake or when we were in an enormous underground cave. Wow for the cave. This area has never suffered an earthquake so we were totally unaware as I said earlier until we collapsed in bed that night to watch TV. With its growth, some of the older style communities are disappearing. There’s water everywhere here and some of the little ancient communities were built around small water formations. Don’t know that that will be around for long. Many pieces of art from China depict the misty mountain ranges against a gray sky. The mountaintops are rounded so they appear to be mounds rather than mountains. We had a river cruise on the Li River. It was time to head for Hong Kong. The mode of transportation, rather than by plane, was a catamaran. A huge ferry boat. They accepted our luggage and visas, same as an airport. It got foggier as we traveled south and west to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong was not what I expected. It’s made up of many islands. It’s very close to Macao (a gambling mecca), another of China’s territories, as is Tibet and some Mongolian areas. These territories have been China’s for a century if not centuries. It’s the ethnicity factor that makes inhabitants want independence. China has been the main governing body throughout the years. They've always been allowed a certain anonymity to a point. There’s so much to be learned. Anyway, Hong Kong has a few major islands that have housing accommodations comparable to the finest as any around the world and is a bustling international city; you can feel it, something like NY only with more ethnicity. We toured the waterfront. We were taken by bus to the top of Victoria Peak during the day and at night went back by ferry (we stayed on Kowloon, one of the islands) and took the tram to the top. The lights at night and the “sideways” view going straight up the mountain was a totally new experience compared to the day trip. The night view from the top was also a brilliant colorful sight. These are some of the difficult to describe moments .
Up to now China has had little crime. There are no guns. Police do not carry guns, but as the classes emerge, so does crime, petty crimes for now. People did not have to worry about maintaining their existence as they do now. Insurance is no longer free. Not everybody is a Party Member. One has to join and make a formal commitment. There are perks to party members. Only about 5% of the population is a registered Communist. Usually they have an interest in politics. Corruption does exist and is being addressed openly. Education is no longer free to all. There are levels to which each child has to pass in order to go on to a higher level and I think this starts at around grade 12, but the testing starts earlier. They cannot continue to get a free education if they fail to meet the standards. By the time kids reach college age they have very high levels to pass to get a free education. Some have already been dropped from the system. Many parents are hard on their children to excel. There is a lot of pressure on these only children. Parents, instead of pushing sohard on a student who doesn’t show potential start early on the idea that the child will go to a foreign school, where they are welcomed as exchange students and the like. So we don’t always get the best of the best when they come to the US for a higher education. That doesn’t mean they’re not ahead of our home grown variety. The competition is just too great for many young Chinese children.
By the way, in China, one doesn’t ask, “how many children do you have?” You say, “do you have a boy or a girl?” Another issue is that there is a generation of only children old enough for marriage. They are so spoiled that they are having difficulty in marriage and divorce is on the rise in the young crowd. Many of the older women still wear the old look of pants and jackets with short haircuts. I often found myself trying to discern if they were men or women. While in Beijing we had a dinner in a private home in the old section where the people still live in a more communal way with tiny ancient alleyways dividing the area that is a complete maze. You can easily get lost taking a walk through this poor section. We were taken in and out on rickshaws, which was fun. A lovely meal was prepared and served for all of us by a woman and her son. At the end of the meal we were treated to a show of a trained grasshopper, cage, tools and all. I brought a few red Las Vegas tee shirts as gifts and this was a perfect gift for the hostess. When it was over I gave the hostess the tee shirt. It was a big hit. She had the biggest smile and showed the shirt to her neighbors outside.
You can practically see China morphing as it’s happening. I had a strange mixed feeling as we waved good-bye. When saying good-bye to our tour guide, Jo, I whispered in her ear, “please don’t let this Capitalism ruin your life!”
Zaijain (Good-Bye) Xiexie (Thank You) for your indulgence. Betty
As my memory of China grows distant I'm going to wrap things up by talking about the things we did, my lasting impressions and add a few tidbits that might be of interest.
Our trip started in Shanghai, next to Beijing, Xian, Wuhan, Yichang, Chongquing, Guilin, ending in Hong Kong. We took four internal flights in China. We embarked Victoria Cruises ship in Yichang, and disembarked in Chongquing. Much of our travel was on very comfortable air-conditioned buses. Each bus came with a new driver and local tour guide. However, when I count the hours of boat travel, it seems pretty even. Besides the cruise ship, we were on two smaller cruise ships, a catamaran, and a couple little boats maybe sampans (?) run by an oarsman. We left the cruise ship a number of times to get into a waiting bus to see the highlights and coastal cities along the way. One of the departures was for the purpose of getting on two different boats, a smaller cruiser where a meal was served and then onto an even smaller boat holding about 15 or 20 each, all for the purpose of seeing some of the most spectacular sights of the smaller or lesser gorges that could not service the large cruise ship. The cities along the shorelines are somewhat more primitive comparatively, mostly farmland on either side of the mountains, that is until we approached Chonquing where we began to be signs of industry and finally a huge city. Some of the industry was coal, not mining but getting it on boats for distribution. Everything is built on angular landscapes. It’s amazing. I saw working boats getting the silt from the bottom of the river. I learned earlier that the building of dams stopped the flow of silt, an important farming ingredient, so I can only surmise that they were gathering the displaced silt. Barges carry enormous loads. The number of truck or train railcars that were loaded onto each barge was astounding. Don’t know what they were carrying but were visible on most of the waterways; and there were shipyards full of railcars, which we passed on our sightseeing buses. We attended the famous Beijing Opera, an acrobatic show, were served the famous Peiking Duck dinner, drank lots of beer and ate lots of dumplings. We had every variety some as tiny as beans and some so large they held surprises inside. The food was extraordinary, tasty and well prepared. Breakfasts were out of this world from hot Chinese food of all sorts to a Western variety that was endless. A variety of noodles was served along with rice. All food was prepared fresh as if it just came from the stove, not your ordinary buffet. They say that the taller Chinese from the North got that way from eating noodles and the Southerners are shorter like the rice they eat. All shopping was rushed and mostly from markets or museums, not exactly what we expected but there was a variety to choose from. It was fun bargaining. We went to a silk factory, learned about the silk worms, saw unwinding of the cocoons to the end silk products. We also went to a jade factory, a silk rug making factory, a cloisenne factory and a jewelry factory. By boat we saw a floating village in the Hong Kong Harbor; not much left of it but we saw it. We also saw a Panda reserve and zoo.
My fellow travelers and I lamented about “how are we ever going to be able to describe what we’ve seen and experienced?” It’s difficult, the beauty, and the vastness of the country, the number of large cities and many being built in wilderness areas, all will or have huge populations. The number of new bridges being built was also noteworthy. There’s so much history with every turn of a corner it’s hard to wrap one’s brain around all the information. We hear so little about these ancient people. There are 57 clans or ethnic people in China. 93 percent are Han people, who’s dialect is Mandarin. 56 Ethnic groups, or minorities, make up about 7 percent of China. The recorded Dynasties go back to 2205 BC up to the current People’s Republic of China since 1949. All the temples and highlights of the trip, The Great Wall, built about 220 BC, shrines, palaces, summer palaces, The Forbidden City, The Terre Cotta Museum in Xian, were all built by ancient dynasties and are two thousand or so years old.
The Terre Cotta soldiers, a lifelike clay army with horses and horsemen, were a highlight of the trip for me. I remember when the discovery was made and have always wanted to see what it was all about. It’s beyond imagination. If someone were to fictionalize a story about such a finding it would not be believable. Two thousand years under the ground! I think I mentioned earlier that a farmer(s) discovered the soldiers by digging for a well in 1974. The entire park, its museums, theatre, shops and workshops are built in this rural area. The diggings to date are surrounded by a building that one walks through. It’s the size of a football field bounded by the walkways and building’s walls. And there’s more to be uncovered, huge areas. Each life size piece is elegant in its draftsmanship. Every face is different with unique features, stature and uniforms. Replicas of officers, horsemen, horses, and even bronze chariots have been found. Each piece was hand painted, mostly worn now but evidence exists on a number of the pieces. The entire area was a burial ground or mausoleum . The entire area was a burial ground or mausoleum. It took 38 years to complete, the final stage had as many as 720,000 people working toward completion. I read that thousands of officers and craftspeople were buried alive in order to keep the site a secret. Eeek. So were the Emperor’s concubines. Be careful ladies!!!! There is so much more information about this site that it’s worth researching.
The Summer Palace is in Beijing built about 250 years ago famous for its gardens worldwide. It has a huge man-made lake on which we took a boat across to an exit at the opposite end of the entrance to the park. Besides the gardens there are beautiful bridges, walkways, buildings and a marble ship that can go nowhere. The ship was built by the Empress that ended up being an irony because the Empress was in exile till death (maybe self-imposed) living at the Summer Palance and also could never leave, both sort of a prisoners of the environment.
The Forbidden City is in the center of Beijing and is truly a city within a city. I had no idea of the enormous space it occupies while we were in it. We saw so little of the entire grounds even though it was one of our longer tours. The movie, The Littlest Emperor, was filmed there. I intend to see it again and relive walking through the gated city. It was basically a “capitol” city for emperors, a place to conduct business and was also a place for the Emperor to live. There is a moat surrounding the city and it’s covered with what must be hundreds of ancient red roofed buildings. It’s filled with artifacts. Much of what we saw looks like it needs refurbishing although the statuary and gardens were lovely.
The Great Wall is one of the Seven Wonders of the World. One of the passes is outside Beijing in heavily wooded mountains. That’s were we ascended. The scenery is spectacular. How people even thought to accomplish this feat is mind-boggling. We, of course, saw a tiny portion, which was a small-fortified encampment with moats, bridges, towers and old buildings. It was gorgeous. The wall itself crosses China through highpeaked mountains in the clouds that are jagged and ends into the sea at the eastern end, north of Shanghai.
