Shanghai'd

Three Gorges.

This past Thursday we flew up to Chongqing, a massive Chinese municipality of 30+ million people, to meet up with our friends Jay & Michelle and Kim & Steve. Both couples are coincidentally traveling in China at the same time and we thought it would be fun to all meet up, get on a cruise liner and sail 430 km down the Yangtze River to the world's largest dam, San Xia Da Ba. The Yangzte is the main artery of mainland China, and the star of our previous post, hu tiao xia. It provides water for crops and after the completion of the dam will provide hydroelectricity to developing coastal Chinese cities. (Anyone who has seen the lights of Shanghai knows that the electricity is being well used).

Rising water level
Of course this comes at a small cost. The dam will eventually raise the water level of the surrounding valley an additional 80 meters, creating hundreds of mini-Pompeii villages and displacing over a million people. Not to mention the catastrophic environmental and ecological impact, but hey, progress has its price. Numerous signs along the river indicate the current water level (140 m above sea level) and the final water level (175 m above sea level) when the resevoir is 100% full in 2009. Anyone currently living below the 175 m mark - an estimated 1.2 million - had better start making plans. Click on this picture to see a better view of the 175 m mark:


The Chinese government generously provides 50,000RMB (about $6,000) per family to relocate. Many are building a little higher. Others are moving to a coastal city. According to all our tour guides, everyone is very happy about this arrangement.

Snow Mountain
Our vessel, Snow Mountain, a 4-star ship was at capacity with 101 guests and 99 staff. Pretty good ratio, and it showed. The food was well prepared, drink preferences remembered and inevitably a girl named icecream, kaluha or baileys to point out every step and change in flooring. The guests were Chinese, German and the 'English-speaking' group which included us, an old Dutch man with his Chinese wife and child, a sea-faring shiver-me-timbers bearded Scotsman and a fair share of octogenarian or obese Americans. In fact, the average age of the English speakers was probably about 60, brought down considerably by one recent high school grad who had unknowingly joined the walker tour. Poor thing. The English speaking group was to be continuously and fearlessly led by our Chinese guide, monikered 'Tom Cruise' (river guide). Get it? By the way, ladies, Tom Cruise (river guide) is still available. Most rooms had 2 twin beds and a bathroom, but Kim and Steve upgraded to the 'presidential suite'. A massive corner of the boat as big as 4 normal rooms complete with lounge room, bar, minifridge and king sized bed. This quickly became the group's party lounge. After the obligatory dam-tour/dam-tourists/dam-tour guide jokes and a quick safety briefing which resulted in questions from the octogenarians such as "how do we answer the phone?", and "how do you remove the stopper from the sink?", we were off.

Gorge #1
Before this trip, I mistakenly thought the name '3 Gorges' came from the fact that 3 rivers met into one. In reality, it is all one river, the Yangtze, which cuts through 3 gorges in route from Chongqing to Yichang. The first gorge is immortalized on the back of the 10 yuan note.




Trackers
After the unremarkable second gorge, we switched from Snow Mountain to a smaller ferry where we went through some small side gorges. When we reached a small village (recently rebuilt due to the raising waters) we climbed aboard narrow sampan 'pea-pod' boats outfitted with 6 strapping "trackers". When the upstream river got too tough to paddle, 4 of the trackers jumped out and harnessed themselves to the boat and proceeded to pull all 16 of us through the rapids. These guys were seriously cut due to their chosen profession and looked like marathon runners. Laurel in particular enjoyed checking out their sculpted booties. These guys used to track in the buff before the advent of comfortable water resistant clothes like underoos and 70s style running shorts.





Souvenirs
Try as you may, you can never escape the souvenirs hawkers. Not even a sampan boat in the middle of some rapids is safe ...



The Dam
Our boat reached the 3 gorges dam at around 10pm and spent the next 4 hrs impressively navigating the 5-step lock system to reach the tailwater side. The final (anticlimactic) day was spent touring the dam site. Though the Chinese government boasted (propagandized?) that construction on the dam was completed last week, the numerous cranes, etc indicated otherwise. Some dam facts:
- 26 turbines (14 currently active)
- 86 billion kWh / yr electricity
- 300+ (reported) worker deaths
- 175 m above sea level final water level (in 2009)
- 1.2 million people relocated
While functionally impressive, it was aesthetically pretty boring in a communist kind of way. Nothing of the drama of Hover dam in the US (as Tim and Kim repeatedly pointed out for the duration of our 'aesthetically disappointing' dam tour).

3 Gorges Dam

Hoover Dam



Reflections
To me, the most amazing thing about the trip was the singular optimism which all the tour guides referred to the project. Everyone was 'very happy' with the dam and it's consequences. The displaced farmers are "very happy because now they can build a newer, better house a little higher up the river bank". The relocated families are "very happy because now they get to live in the city". As for us, we are very happy we got to see the country before it was swallowed up, and that we got to spend such a good weekend with our friends!

"Auntie" (a.k.a. domestic helper).
Laurel and I have prided ourselves in 'fitting in' in China as much as can be reasonable expected for two tall, blonde, white foreigners. We eat at the little noodle place down the street with the locals, shop at the wet market, don't have a personal driver, and (kinda) speak the language. But, we took a big step down the road of ex-pat indulgence when we finally broke down and hired an Ayi. We can justify this little luxury in a number of ways:
- Laurel has gone back to work
- With all the dust and pollution in the city, the apartment needs to be cleaned about 3x as often as back home
- We are sans several of the first-world luxuries like a dishwasher and a washer/dryer big enough for more than a single pair of jeans
- We're helping the local economy? (this is BS and anyone who's ever used this excuse knows it)
- Labor is so cheap you seriously can't afford NOT to
- The last thing either of us wants to do after working a full day and fighting the rush-hour commute home is scrub the toilet. There, I said it.

I can tell this is going to be a slippery slope; first an Ayi, then the next thing you know we'll be moving to some villa in Pudong.

Typhoon.
Last Thursday, we experienced our first, albeit mild, taifeng in Shanghai. I must say I was a little disappointed. The word typhoon conjures up images of tin roofs blowing off shacks, whereas our little storm brought some steady rain and high winds but could hardly be considered intimidating. The way 50-storey skyscrapers go up practically overnight, though, God help us if we get any earthquakes.

Drink and Drive.

The other day, I was riding in a van with its driver (not mine, a friend's) after an ultimate frisbee game and cracked a beer. There was an impulsive reaction, something about the pssshht of a can of beer opening combined with the sounds of driving, that made me second guess my decision to drink and ride. Then I remembered, this is China. (And I was in the back seat, it can't be THAT bad.) I love this country. Cheers!

Lijiang to Tiger Leaping Gorge

I love how the Chinese plan the holidays so that 3 times a year, you get a full 7 days break. The last of these national holidays was May 1, or Labor Day. This time it fell on a Monday and after working the previous Saturday and Sunday, most of China enjoyed May 1-7 for a holiday. Unfortunately, this means that all of China was traveling last week. But that's the way it works. We planned to visit Lijiang and the Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province in South West China.

We flew into Lijiang Monday morning. There was no indication that the whole country was on the move. We had no issue getting a taxi and the airport was a breeze. We had a short connection in Kunming and were in Lijiang by midday. Our plan for this trip was to spend 1 night in Lijiang's Old town followed by 2 nights in the gorge then back to Lijiang. Lijiang's old town has traditional Naxi style construction, is completely pedestrian (no motor bikes even!) and is surrounded by a more typical new town. Our first task was to get bus tickets to Qiaotou. For this effort we had a helpful university English major guide, who was overjoyed at the English name Charlie we gave him. We planned a bus for the next morning at 8:30, and then went in for a nap. The real shock came that night, when we went out for dinner and found the streets PACKED with people. Like Nanjing Lu on New Years packed. But there was no shortage of restaurants to serve us and we had dinner to some softball style cheers going on across the river. Every shop front was selling souvenirs. There were speakers blaring a traditional song to which hundreds of tourists mimicked a Naxi circular dance - for hours. We really had to get out.


The next morning dawned and we were out in the now empty streets. This town is really beautiful without the million people. We made it onto the bus and had a typical ride 2 hours (drive along construction laden street through ditch to find gas, stop at side of road to fill radiator with hose, visit side of road souvenir stand with 1000 other buses, request 30 yuan bribery money from each passenger to avoid the 50 yuan park fee - that saved us 20 yuan and prevented any money from getting to the people who actually take care of the trail!) to reach the start of the hike.

We set off with about 15 Chinese and 4 other foreigners. A far cry from the million people in Lijiang. The truth is, this place is gorgeous. We had clear skies, a view of the Yulong Shan (Jade Dragon Mountain), the muddy Yangzi Jiang below us, a pack on our back, and miles of trail before us. This is a holiday. There are, of course, lots of ways to see this and avoid hiking. You can ride a horse the length of the trail (wearing high heels and carrying a leather bag - no less!). You can take a low road bus and view it from the parking lots. Up on the high trail there are guesthouses along the way to feed you and provide a bed and shower. A little posh, but hey this is vacation.


The hike starts out climbing until a middle high point of ~2500m, then descends to the 'end' a small gathering of guesthouses called Walnut Garden, and is about 25km in length. Our plan was to get to the end the first day, then day hike the next before getting back to the action in Lijiang! However, the erratic bus ride that took 4 hours instead of 2 and the terrible heat slowed us down a bit and we were convinced to stop after 4 hours at the Cha Ma (Tea Horse) guesthouse along the way. We made friends with the 4 other waiguoren on our trek, 2 Americans and 2 British, enjoyed some beer and, eventually, dinner. The next day was downhill mostly. We arrived with the 2 British to Walnut Garden around 2pm, realized that the owner, Sean, at the guest house we had planned on staying at (Seans, you'll see it in every China travel book) was kind of a prick and moved to this gorgeous new place, the Tibet guesthouse for the night. Our window showed a view of the mountains, and we were within walking distance of the "cause of the story" - the actual place where the Tiger Leaped! Or is it Leapt!

In any case, we were convinced by the friendly guesthouse family, the view and the 1 million tourists awaiting us in Lijiang to stay another day. We made it out down to the rock and got to check out some awesome rapids in a spot where the gorge narrows to just a few meters. A 'dangerous' sky ladder leads out of the gorge and we planned returning to Lijiang. But the weather was cooperating, and the clear mountain air was reviving us after a few months in Shanghai. We were in no hurry to get back. At this point we barely saw anyone else on the trail, and we were getting used to it. We decided to take 2 more days. We traveled back along the trail, stopping over night in a small family run guesthouse with only a few other hikers. By the fifth day, we had to get back to Lijiang to catch our flight. And so we hiked out to Qiaotou.


The bus back to Lijiang was not quite as eventful as the one out. We ended up on a minibus with 5 smoking Chinese men that were hauling huge nylon bags back filled with who knows what. We made it back actually in 2 hours! and found a place to stay at the top of the hill in Lijiang. We spent the last day eating and visiting the not to be missed tourist attractions and photo shoots of Lijiang - a recently built massive pagoda and the photo op of the east, the Black Dragon Pool. Less than 24 hours in Lijiang completed our vacation in Yunnan and we were off to Shanghai.

But the trip was not over yet! Awaiting us in Shanghai were the crowds we had missed on the way out of town. There was the 45-minute serpentine line for a taxi ("That's a 10k!", Tim commented), there were the drivers targeting foreigners, with a $10 mark-up for an immediate ride home. The air was not clear, but not cloudy. We did end up in a cab that stopped for gas and where the cabbie was on her mobile the whole ride and the bloody transportation card wouldn't work... But there was neon, and noise. We were home.