The Anticipated Trip Did Not Disappoint
The mighty Yangtze is the longest river
in China. Only the Amazon and Nile Rivers surpass the Yangtze in length. In Chinese the river is
Chang Jiang and is also known to natives as the Long River, China’s Main
Street, or China’s Lifeline. In
some literature the river is also spelled Yangzi, but we’re all talking about
the same body of water that starts in the snow-capped mountains of Tibet,
winding its way through the mountains, across the China heartland and 4000
miles later empties into the sea at Shanghai. Three-quarters of the Yangtze’s
course runs through mountains.
The cabins on the Victoria Empress were small with two single beds, a desk, hanging
closet, and a small bathroom with a shower over a short tub, sink and commode. It
was nice the cabin was en suite so we did not have to walk down
the hallway to the bathroom! We loved the balcony and spent a fair amount of
time on it. The Victoria cruise ships are American owned. The 77 cabin Empress
was 287 feet long.
The Yangtze running east to west splits
China north and south. The country north of the river is grain country, past
military, and has cold snowy winters.
South of the river the climate is green, covered with rice paddies, and is
where the outside world begins to make a presence.
It is 400 miles via river from where we
boarded the boat in Chongqing to
Yichang. Neither the wildest nor swiftest part of the river, but it is considered
the most beautiful. The brutal simplicity of life along the river means long
days of toil from dawn ‘til dusk producing meager comforts. Terraced fields
were seen all along the river and the power was sheer muscle power. We never
saw any piece of mechanized equipment. It felt like being in a time warp, like
time had stood still since 1900.
Since the initial
flooding of the river in June 2003 the steps leading from the river to Fengdu
were under water so we had to bypass that city.
The Ghost City’s, quaint
legends live in contrast to the modern day construction of the Three Gorges
Dam. In ancient times sailors anchored their boats in mid-stream to avoid
attacks by ghosts.
The river’s watershed covers two
million square kilometers, or 20% of China’s land mass. It supports a
population of 400 million. In the Sichuan area of the Red Basin it nourishes a
population greater than England and France combined! The river has 700 tributaries.
At one time there were extremely
dangerous rapids on parts of the river. In the 1950s many of the rocks and
submerged reefs were blasted away in the gorges calming dangerous rapids. The
muddy river is polluted, and a particularly dangerous parasite makes swimming
unadvisable.
The Upper Yangtze runs between Chongqing
and Wuhan. The central part of the river
is called the Middle River, and the Lower River is the part of the river from
Wuhan to Shanghai, China’s most
cosmopolitan city and center of trade. It is here where the river becomes the
main transportation route between ancient villages and bustling commercial
centers.
The Lower River for centuries has been
the grain basket of the country and has been vitally important to the
development of China. Twenty-five percent of China’s arable land is along the
Yangtze. The Chinese have plied the river in their sampans and junks for
centuries. In the 13th century when Marco Polo navigated the Lower
River he was amazed at the amount of river traffic. Periodic floods have
occurred, putting thousands of acres under water and causing the loss of
hundreds of thousands of lives.
In Wanzhou, the gateway to Sichuan, it
was an easy walk up 120 steps that were narrow in depth and perfect for pacing.
The controversial dam project has meant
the relocation of over a million people. [Estimates vary from 1.2 to 1.6
million people.] Wanzhou has a 1600-year
history, covers 3500 square kilometers, and has a population of 1.8 million. In
addition 250,000 people have been relocated there. The new relocation area was
nicely landscaped with waterfalls, gardens, and wide pedestrian walkways.
We transited the Wu Gorge known for
its forested mountains. At the narrowest part of this gorge the river is only
100 yards wide. Stark rugged precipices are on one side of the gorge and gentle
mountains and terraced farm plots on the other. Legend says a goddess came down to earth and vanished
dragons from the river turning them and herself into mountain peaks. Each gorge
seemed more beautiful than the previous one and it would be hard to fixate on
any one.
We passed under many bridges, some
of which will be replaced, as the water will cover them when the final flooding
is done. The Chinese travel mostly in small low to the water commuter boats. Along
this stretch of the river we glimpsed a few sampans and watched women doing
their laundry in the river. I wondered how clean the clothes would be after
being washed in the muddy river.
I’ve seen so many pictures of people balancing buckets or baskets from a
pole over the shoulders, but I never thought I’d actually see such a scene. But
I did in old rural China.
Markers all along the river banks marked
various levels of where the river will be when the project is finished. The top
mark was 75 meters. Fifteen million people have been under direct threat when
the Yangtze floods. When completed the dam will supply 10-15% of the power
needed for the entire country, and China is a huge country.
In Wuhan, we boarded a ferry for a
ride up the Daning River though the three Lesser Gorges. Dragon-gate Gorge,
Misty Gorge, and Emerald Gorge may have been lesser in size but they were
certainly not lesser in beauty. In fact I and many others thought they were the
most beautiful of all the gorges where the river was much narrower.
Before 2003 the Daning River had
only 1-3 meters of water, now it has 65 feet of water, and the dangerous rapids
are gone as is the need to portage around them. Two-thirds of the city of
Wushan is under water and its people have been relocated. We saw monkeys about
the size of squirrels playing in the trees, also sheep, goats and a few birds.
We spied a coffin left in a high cave eons ago.
The scenery was spectacular and in
the Emerald Gorge the water was definitely a dark green—a big contrast to the
rather muddy river elsewhere.
We sailed through the Xiling Gorge
and then through three locks. Once out of the last lock, we moored to be ready
for a tour of the Three Gorges Dam project the next day.
It was a
fantastic river trip and certainly a memorable one!
Georgian houses of the 1700s were
mostly built the same. The kitchen and servants quarters were in the basement.
Servants never entered through the
front door. The dining room was on the ground floor so food did not have to be
carried very far. The drawing room and living room were on the next floor and
on the top floor were the master bedroom and children’s rooms. The windows are
shorter on the top floor to protect the children and to give the illusion of
height to the building.
At the corner of the park we found a
lounging Oscar Wilde on a huge rock.
Fourteen different rocks are used in the statue. His face is a bit unusual as
it portrays different moods when viewed from different angles. From the left he
appears rather sad, face on he appears contemplative and from the right he
appears happy. The statue sits high enough to peer over the fence onto the busy
street.
