Notes to this story:

Ardith is my friend in Seattle who constantly remarks about my use of mascara and lipstick.

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Saturday, September 8 (Mel)

Up and at 'em early this morning.  We had a hydrofoil ride, then ferry, then bus, then 1400 steps until we made it to the Tujan boat people in the Shennong River, one of the rivers of the Gorges.

The hydrofoil boat is Russian-made, so the sign/notices were in Russian.  Finally -- something I can read in this country!!!  They have "hydro attendants", which are like flight attendants.  I was standing at the back of the cabin, watching this video comedy about an 8 year-old boy in monk training, when the boat jerked from hitting an eddy or something.  The hydro attendant standing next to me took my hand and wouldn't let it go for the rest of the trip.  I think she was trying to protect me from the sudden shocks.

Russian hydrofoil boat

After the boat, we got off near a small village, hiked up the hill, got on a bus, and went on a scary bus ride through the mountains.  Grant (our guide) said his personal experience is to not look down or out the window during these types of bus rides.  I agree.  We finally made it to the Tujan village. 

Wall made by Tujan boat people, showing what they do

The Tujan people are a minority people, known for their boat-making skills and for pulling these boats upstream.  Until a few years ago (before tourism in the area was developed), they were known for doing it in the nude.  Don't ask me why.  Now they wear shorts.

Making a boat

We floated down the Shennong River.  The river is about 4 feet deep and is crystal clear.  The water is cool, and the sun finally came out.  We saw the holes in the cliffs where the ancient people put coffins, we saw little water birds, mountains on both sides, the sound of crickets and birds, little yellow butterflies.  So peaceful.  No cars, no motorized boats (river is too shallow), no noise.  Just nature.  I dangled my feet over the boat's edge to cool off.  Although the area wasn't humid, it was still hot.  Two hours later we were near the Yangtze River.

           
                                                    Rowing the boat                                                                                        Ken and Mel floating down Shennong river

The Tujan people will lose their way of life after the dam is completed.  The flood will consume the 1400 steps through the Tujan village.  The river will be too deep for pulling boats.  The brown muddy water will overrun the crystal clear river.

We took another boat further up the Yangtze River, which dropped us at the steps of Fengjie, a city of 50,000.  We climbed many steps to get to the main area.  The streets were crowded with children and vendors and motorcycles and bikes and carts and supplies.  Noise, people, dust, voices, everywhere.  A huge smile crossed Ken's face.  Why so happy, Ken?  "It's just like Egypt," he replied.

We hiked to the hotel.  It was a grand hotel.  About 20 years ago.  Beautiful teak furniture, marble floors, staff running around everywhere.  New TVs.  Amazing this place exists in a city with so much dirt and so crowded!

Hiking from the boat into Fengjie

We walked through the streets before meeting the group for dinner.  We were starving, so we found the food area and got a round bread thing from a woman who cooked them on the street.  One bite to realize how heavenly they were:  it was the Chinese version of pyryzhky -- bread, sausage, potato, onion!!!  I was in heaven!!!

After our gazillion-course meal at the only indoor restaurant in town, we decided to check out the disco.  The disco opens at 9pm and closes at 11pm.  The beverage choices are Coke or beer.  The music isn't too loud.  When we walked in, there were quite a few people on the dance floor, dancing in an orderly fashion.  Heidi noticed that they didn't move their arms.  After a few slow songs, they put on a fast tune, and Heidi couldn't take it anymore.  She got on the dance floor and started flinging her arms everywhere, moving all over the floor.  Ken and Michelle joined her.  I think that people were too horrified to get on the dance floor, since Heidi/Ken/Michelle were dancing in such a disorderly fashion.  After a few songs, we left.

When we got back to our room, we found we had a visitor.  It was a 6" long brown hairy spider.  He scurried from the curtains to the ceiling near our bed when the hotel girl drew the curtains.  She looked at the spider, then left the room.  Ken and I debated for 10 minutes if we could kill the spider, how to kill the spider, could we accept sleeping with a spider in our room, yada, yada.  Then the girl came back with the security police, who took care of the problem with a broom and a hard smack.  We thanked them profusely (in Chinese).  Now it's just the two of us again in the room.

We like Fengjie, with all of its dust, orderly dancing, crowded streets, and wonderful Chinese pyryzhky food.  Just not the spiders. 

Sunday, September 9 (Mel)

Woo hoo!  We got to sleep late today.  We woke up at 9am.  While I took a shower, Ken went to the market to get breakfast.  He came back with these spongecake rolls filled with currant jam, mini muffins, and juice.  We had an hour to kill before meeting the group, so we hung out on the step of the hotel.  A lady selling water, chips, and candy on a cart next to the hotel steps saw us sitting there and pointed for us to sit on the stools by her.  We sat under her patio-type umbrella, watching the streets and people doing their shopping.  Sunday is commerce day in China.  We saw men carrying sacks and crates, some on their backs, some on poles.  Children playing games on the street.  Fathers carrying babies, while mothers carry produce.  Some dressed up, men with no shirts, vendors with everyday clothes on.  When I looked across the street, I found something that ticked me off.  I went ballistic.  What was it?  Little blonde-haired, blue-eyed Barbie dolls (not the genuine ones, of course, but a knock-off).  It ticked me off, because American marketing already shoves this image of "ideal" beauty down the throats of Western little girls, and now this image is being shoved down the throats of Chinese little girls.  Little girls who can't be blonde nor blue-eyed.  Little girls who are doing good just to eat and get a balanced diet.  And now we're letting them know that to be "pretty", they should be anorexic, blonde, and blue-eyed.  They could never to compete.  There are way more Chinese girls than American.  I would love to see the toy market flooded with short, black-haired, brown-eyed Barbie dolls.  America deserves it.  Okay, I am now off my soapbox.

And talking about beauty standards, the Chinese male status symbol is to have Buddha bellies.  If you have this Buddha belly, it means you have a cushy job and eat well.  In order to prove they have the best Buddha belly, men walk around (slowly, of course) with their t-shirts rolled up to their chest.  It's quite entertaining.  The Buddha belly is the American equivalent of a washboard stomach. 

Okay, back to the dusty streets of Fengjie.  While sitting by the woman selling chips and pop, Robert and Kitty (from our group) stopped by.  They said hi, and started talking with the woman (Robert and Kitty are Cantonese, but pick up Mandarin easily).  We bought some potato puffs from the vendor, plus a chocolate bar, and these fried peas snack.  (At least we think they are fried peas; the package front showed happy peas happily jumping out of a happy pod.)  She tried to sell us some duck jerky, but we declined.

We ate another gazillion-course lunch at the same restaurant.  Then started walking towards the river.  We wanted to stop by various places to get food for the boat trip back to Yichang, but the pyryzhky ladies were gone!!!  They were there an hour ago.  Aaaaaargh!!!  So we got some fruit, and stopped by this lady on the steps who was selling humbow with pork and onion.  They were the size of dollar buns, so we picked up 10.  We raced down the steps to the river and got on a Chinese-version cruise ship. 

Fengjie will be flooded in 2003.

Flood markers showing 135m and 175m levels

The cruise ship is for day trips down the river.  Each cabin has 3 beds, a chair, a sink, and a 15" color TV hooked up to satellite.  On the front of the boat is a deck where we can see each of the three gorges.  They are spectacular.  For most of them, their height will be cut by 1/3 or more when the dam is finished.

Ken and Mel on Second Gorge

On the front deck was a small group of businessmen who wanted to talk to us about the Olympic games in Beijing in 2008.  Jerry, our guide from Xinping, translated for us.  Apparently the businessmen are worried about how we view Beijing, Chinese people, their ability to host the games (as far as resources, government, image, etc.).  We told him we thought it was great that Beijing will have the games, and that we have confidence in their ability, but apparently nothing we said would assure him.  Throughout the afternoon he would approach various members of our group, still with no satisfactory answer.

We spent the afternoon playing cards, talking with the Australians about TV (they are crazy about The Simpsons), and watching the gorges (or, as we say it, those dam gorges mountains).  After writing in this journal, I will venture to the deck to join the group for "happy hour".

Happy Hour, consisting of humbow and PBR

We didn't arrive to Yichang until 9:30pm.  We checked into the same hotel, then went across the street to the same restaurant for dinner.  After dinner we went down the street to a massage place.  Of course, it's not the seedy ones you think of from Asia, but a Chinese-trained center with one half a hair salon and the other half a massage salon.  The girls are all between 5' and 5'3" tall.  There's a room with 6 beds and bamboo/paper dividers.  They first start with a head massage, then face, then arms, then legs.  They turn you over, jump on the table, grab the ceiling bars, then jump on your back and walk/slide around.  It was so cool!!!  They do this for an hour and a half.  We paid 48 yuan ($6) for this!!!

Monday, September 10 (Mel)

I wore lipstick today to spite Ardith.  And what may be a shock to her is that up until today, I was the only female in the group who DIDN'T wear lipstick.  (Na, na, na, na, na, Ardith.)

We left Yichang at 9am by bus, and headed to Wuhan.  The drive was 5 hours, with one pit stop.  We got to the airport, checked in, waited for a while, and now we're on a Boeing 737 heading East.  We spent the day travelling from Yichang to Huangshan.  We reached the hotel at Huangshan, ate dinner, into our rooms now.  We get to call this place "home" for the next 3 days.

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Next segment: 

Ken speaks,
climbing the misty mountains,
using the special travel pills,
the little girl at the internet place,
what happened in the US...

mkadenko/01.01.02