Ken and Mel in China, Part 3

Notes for this section:

I've received feedback wanting more info on the Afro Ken stuff. It's a scream. You can look up more info about Afro Ken at http://www.dreamkitty.com/afroken.html. Check out the website and be prepared to laugh. My personal favorite is Afro Ken with Elvis hair.

Also, should've mentioned this before: although I was good about writing in the journal and Ken's entries were sparse, he was busy taking all the pictures!

With regard to the Three Gorges Dam, although I extensively reported about the attributes of the dam in today's segment, I wanted to make sure that I did not skew my writing to reveal, at this point, my feelings about the dam. There is more to the story than what is revealed today; my views about Three Gorges Dam will be revealed in Part 4. Please withhold replies about the dam until you've read the next segment! For more information about the Three Gorges Dam, please check out http://www.coxnews.com/washington/GORGES.HTM.

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September 6 (Mel)

This morning I had my first hot shower in China. (I finally figured out the hot water at Lisa's Guesthouse.) I showered, got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast. Ken left at 7:30am to walk around the area, but I wanted to sleep late. I joined up with Michelle and Darren (from our group), and we discussed dreams. Apparently Michelle and I are in the same phase, whereby we mix up both people from home and experiences in China. The first few nights I always dream about home, then about mixed people/places, then about the country I'm in. When we asked Darren and Ken about their dreams. They said they rarely recalled their dreams. Okay...discussion over.

The night before, we gave our laundry to Lisa, she said it would be ready the next morning. I thought maybe it was sent off, but discovered where it actually went -- above our hotel room. We ventured upstairs to the roof, and found a small washing machine, lots of laundry hanging, and a woman I've never seen before. She didn't know any English, just smiled. It is her duty to do all the laundry, which prevents her from dealing with guests.

I gave a bunch of "shimmering" pens to Lisa to give to the local school. Lisa knows the teachers at the grade school, and Intrepid (the tour agency) has an arrangement to give supplies/money for the school through Lisa. Some kids are too poor for good school supplies, and donating supplies to Lisa (for the school) is better than passing them out to kids in the street. (Intrepid believes in "responsible tourism", which means to make donations to programs, rather than to individuals.)

We packed our backpacks, I got on the internet, and Ken went in search of food for our bus trip. A couple of hours later I said goodbye to Lisa, gave Shi-la a hug, and walked down the cobble street to our bus. We had a 4-hour bus ride to Liuzhou, where we take a train to the Hubei province. I unpacked the lunch that Ken bought. There was rice, vegetables, and something round, brown, with a white line running through the center. Hmmm...never saw this before. I chew on the edge. It's rubbery. I chew on the middle, too stringy. What could this be? After closer inspection, I discover that -- IT'S SNAKE!!! Okay, I pass on eating that.

Since we were on the "soft sleeper" (first class) train, then there is a special lounge to wait. We dumped our stuff in the lounge and went in search of food for the train trip. We bought candy labelled "black chocolate" (dark chocolate), water, noodle bowls, and pop. Ken wanted sandals, but we went to three stores before we could find sandals that were big enough for Ken's feet! Then we stopped at a noodle stand, pointed to the ingredients that we wanted, and they served us tea while making the noodles. What we didn't realize was that it was a noodle soup. So walked away with noodles and broth in a plastic baggie. Quite tricky to carry.

Waiting lounge for first class train

While walking through the market area, I noticed that people were pointing and/or laughing as walked by. At first I thought it was from what I was wearing, until I hung back a few feet from Ken. Then I realized it was his brightly-colored shirt with bright green shorts that attracted attention! They wear shorts in China, but the colors are definitely not as bright.

We brought our food to the train station, adjusted some things, then sat in the waiting lounge for half an hour. I talked with Anne for a while. She's a newly retired school teacher from the Seattle area. We somehow got on the subject of walking and I told her of a friend of mine (Linda), who walked hundreds of miles in preparation for the Avon Breast Cancer 3-day walk. Anne told me she was a breast cancer survivor of 1 year. The China trip was to prove to herself that she is a survivor.

On the train (which was made in Russia), we are sharing the room with Jon and Heidi. They both quit their jobs and are travelling throughout Asia for 8 months. They started travels in June and will finish February in Australia. They are very organized, to the point where they have a laptop and digital camera. Every night they download the pictures, write up the day's events, and then download everything onto their webpage when they can get to the internet. I will never be that organized.

I also had a long talk with Grant (tour leader) about communism in China, and the fact that there are so many private enterprises and American products (and knock-offs, of course). To me it was such a conflict. I won't go into the discussion here, except to say that Grant's view is that it was never true communism to begin with, and that there is so much corruption, that if the Central Planning Division tells a farmer to grow sugarcane, and the farmer grows barley to sell on the black market for a higher price, then the local government official sent to arrest the farmer can be bribed. After the bribe, the farmer still comes out ahead than if he had grown sugarcane. Seems like communism in China after Mao's death is the same as Russia after Stalin's death (i.e., watered down).

Oh, and one more thing -- the mattress on the train is softer than any of the hotel beds in China (so far).

September 7 (Ken)

We're on the train again, but I'll start from my last entry on the last train trip...

We got off the train, exited the train station, and were supposed to get on a bus. Apparently there was some confusion as to which bus our group was supposed to take. We started to board one bus, then someone came over and told us we were supposed to be on an another bus. Since we would have the newly-arrived bus to ourselves, the group switched buses. This made the women who were directing the buses VERY ANGRY. (I think they get a cut of the action.) There ensued a loud argument (all in Chinese, so we didn't understand a word), and one of the women even starting hitting Darren, who is about 6'3" and 250 lbs. We finally got onto a bus and headed off from Guilin to Yangshou.

Yangshou was a pretty town, situated in the heart of a region with flat river valleys, filled with limestone "haystack" mountains reaching about 1500 ft. high. These haystacks seemingly go on endlessly into the distance, and each one has its own name.

The place we stayed, Lisa's Guesthouse, was on a flagstone street with restaurants, hotels, and shops catering to Western tourists. The hotel was clean, and we had a great view from our room.

The first morning in Yangshou, we showered, then rented tandem bikes to ride out to Moon Hill. The bike ride itself was a frustrating experience for Mel and me, because the chain kept falling off, and the seats weren't adjusted for nearly my height. But Moon Hill has a nice, short (and steamy-hot) hike up to a natural stone arch, and then Richard, our guide, took us to a local woman's home for lunch. Lunch was fantastic - probably the best real Chinese food we'll have on this trip. The ride back we took dirt back roads through clusters of homes among the fields (mostly rice). Most of the homes consist of simple clay brick walls and traditional Chinese-style clay-tile roofs. Like we saw in rural Egypt, the living conditions are what we would consider to be pretty squalid, but people seem to make the most of what they've got.

Every useable space here is employed for something living, commerce, and especially agriculture. The agriculture seems to be 99% manual labor. I'm somewhat disheartened to see the amount of fertilizer/pesticide that is used, but it's probably not much more than the average U.S. farm.

The second day in Yangshou we got up very early and went for a boat cruise up the Li River. The scenery was stunning, and we also got a glimpse of life along the river -- buffalo, washing day, a boat taking the kids to school.

Later that day, I rented a bike on my own and rode 20km out to a village called Puyi. I passed lots of people along the way, and as I got further out from Yangshou, I could tell the people were less accustomed to seeing a non-Chinese person. I just smiled and occasionally tried "hello" ("ni hau") in Chinese. Some folks just stared, some smiled back, and some even yelled hello to me (in English) before I saw them.

Biking is definitely the way to get around in China, whether in the country or the city. Bikes and motorcycles are the primary means of personal transportation -- most of the motorized traffic is buses and work trucks. People of all ages get around on their bikes -- most of them simple-speed "cruisers" -- and transport all manner of stuff: live animals, a side of beef, produce, building materials, you name it.

I've tried to be fairly adventurous in eating here. The other night we went to a stand in the Yangshou market and got some really good stuff by pointing at what looked good -- particularly good was a pork/green bean/garlic concoction. Tried my luck again yesterday and turned out less lucky. The food, while edible and different to my palate, was a little too out-there, including a mystery meat that we think was snake.

We've been on the train for the last 18 hours, a "soft sleeper" with our own private sleeping space (for four of us: me, Mel, Jon, and Heidi). The train is grimy, but functional. Slept okay. Enjoying watching the countryside roll by, rolling green hills, and patchwork of farms.

Last night on the train I sat and talked with some young Chinese people. Their English, while 1000 times better than my Chinese, was pretty limited, but we did manage to teach each other "rock/scissors/paper" in each other's language. From what I could ascertain, the two girls were students, and the young man was in the Army on his way home to visit his parents for three days. Rock/scissors/paper in Chinese is "shitau/jindao/bu".

Guard at train station Ken stuck his head out of the train to take this photo

September 7 (Mel): Dam It: Mel's Lecture About Three Gorges Dam

We got to our hotel in Yichang, took a much-needed shower, then headed to the construction site of the Three Gorges Dam. We drove through five tunnels to get there, with the longest being 4km. There were several tall bridges on the highway, the highway from Yichang to the dam was constructed in 1996.

Our first stop was the technical center, which had a model of the dam, pictures of the progress of the dam with the head engineers, and a bookstore. We figured out the layout of the dam, then I headed to the bookstore. I found a book which had a stamp collection, photo CD, and another CD which gives the dam schematics. While paying for my purchase, the sales clerk asked me if I would help him with a phrase. I said sure, then he said he wanted to know how Americans cheer their sports teams. He said that he has a favorite soccer team that he wants to cheer. I hesitated for a moment, looked around to make sure that not many people were looking, then did my cheer (with my hands raised): "Woo hoo!! Go team, go!! Go!! Go!! Go!! Yea!!!" He smiled broadly and asked me to write all that down.

We left the technical center, drove up the road, parked at the top of the observation tower. All I can begin to say about the Three Gorges Dam is: immense, immense on a scale beyond belief. This is what I learned about the dam:

The Yangtze River is the third largest river in the world, next to the Nile and the Amazon. It's a turbulent river, with many smaller rivers and tributaries feeding into it. It's a polluted river from factory spilloff and from floods. The color is brown. It is wide. It's the lifeline for shipping from Shanghai. There are hundreds of cities/towns/villages which overlook the Yangtze and depend on it. The Yangtze has had several major floods in the past 100 years, with at least 30,000 people killed during that time. The last flood, in 1998, took 3000 people. For over 100 years, the Chinese have talked about building this dam, and the project started in 1992. During the design phase (in the 1950's), they enlisted the ideas of Soviet engineers, in addition to Western engineers. (During the 50's, both US and Soviet governments were building numerous dams.)

The area to be flooded because of the dam

The proponents of the Three Gorges dam list several reasons for the need to undertake such an enormous task, with the two major reasons of flood control and hydropower. Currently, 50% of the power is from coal, which causes major pollution for both water and air, not to mention lung disease, medical problems from mining, asthma, etc. The other 40% of power is from hydro, and 10% is nuclear. The dam will add more hydro power to China's energy infrastructure, which rearranges the mixture to 65% hydro, 25% coal, and 10% nuclear. The United Nations is coming down on coal-burning and other pollution-causing energy sources, with China being at the top of the list of violators (the United States is high on that list too). If China cannot have hydro to replace coal, then they will resort to nuclear power.

The downside? Up to 3 million upstream people will have to be relocated, since the dam will cause the river to rise 175 meters. The livelihood of those living upstream will be taken away. Relocating 3 million people, at a cost of 30,000 yuan ($3750 USD) per person will make some people better off and others worse. The government has already started building cities and towns higher up the mountains, and relocating some people now. Although Central Planning forbids people to move around the country unless directed by the government or through marriage, those being displaced due to the dam are allowed to move anywhere of their choosing. (There are other items to add to the downside of the dam, but they are engineering-/ecosystem-related, and that is Ken's area of expertise, so I won't say anything about that.)

The plan is to slowly put the dam in place and close the gates. The time period is April 2003 for the first phase, which will raise the water level to 135 meters. The second phase will increase it to 175 meters in Spring 2009.

Simplified plan of the Three Gorges Dam

The dam project consists of 3 dam sections (a spillway with a power generator on each side), a small "boat elevator" section, and 2 sets of locks with 5 sections in each lock (one set for ships travelling to the East and one set for the West). Since there are 5 sections to each lock and it would be a bit difficult to raise up a 10-ton ship to 175 meters in one shot, they must do it in 5 stages. It will take a total of 3 hours to raise/lower the ships.

Thirty thousand people work on this project from all areas of specialty in engineering and construction. Special work housing has been setup, and these are workers are without their families on the dam site. They work around the clock in 3 shifts. They receive 2 weeks off per year to go home to families.

First and section section of Three Gorges Dam The locks of Three Gorges Dam

I don't know what else to say about the dam. It's huge. It will be the biggest dam in the world when it is completed. Everything about it is of magnitude that is huge. When we got to the observation deck, we could see the various phases of the lock segments -- one almost completed, to one having the welding done, to one having the retaining walls poured. Two of the three dam segments are completed, and the "boat elevator" is half-finished.

We returned to the city in late afternoon, and headed to the park. We wanted to throw around our frisbee, but that was thwarted. Why? Because no one is allowed on the grass. What a shame for children in the city to not be able to crawl on grass! We settled for sitting by the fountain and watching the kids play. Then we met up with the group for dinner at a noodle place.

Little girls fighting at park

At the noodle place, they make the noodles by hand. They stretch and whip the dough, drop it in boiling water, take it out, and add whatever you want. I chose beef, cilantro, and spinach to add to my noodles. Ken said "everything", even though there was one item no one could figure out. After we finished eating, Ken drew a picture of a cow, chicken, pig, dog, and snake. He pointed to the bowl of mystery ingredients, then handed his drawing to the staff. After looking at the picture, they picked the pig, then patted their stomach. PORK INTESTINES!!! Ah...that's what Ken was eating!!

Making noodles

After the noodles, we headed to the grocery store for tomorrow's supplies. The supermarkets are just like in Russia, in that you get what you need and pay at the front for food, but for clothes/paper/electronics/etc. you choose the item, then go to the cashier to pay, she gives you a receipt, then you give it to the first girl, who then gives you the item. This systems makes sure that everyone has a job under communism. We picked up water and cookies. On the way to the cashier, I bumped a brandy display with my basket and knocked over a few cartons. I bent over to pick them up, the employees were horrified, and rushed over to clean up the mess.

Geez, I never had that happen at Safeway.

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Next segment:

the Russian hydrofoil,
the sad fate that awaits Fengjie and the Tujan boat people,
seeing each of the Three Gorges,
and more...

mkadenko/01.01.02