Yangtze River
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Bret, enjoying the cruise on the Yangtze. BTW, his SPRINT phone works on the Yangtze River in the middle of nowhere!

The bell rang early on Saturday morning. And by bell I mean the young girl on the loudspeaker that was unable to be turned off by any legal means that was positioned right over the head of my bed on the boat. The first couple times it was fine but it began to take on a, quoting someone else here, “A Tokyo Rose” sort of quality meant to break our spirits. It actually was not all that bad but her both her voice and the timing of it took on a humorous quality as the cruise went on.

After the early rise and breakfast we transferred to another, smaller ferry boat for a cruise down a tributary of the Yangtze River called the Shennongxi Stream. You can tell the difference between the Yangtze River and the Shennongxi Stream by their color. The former is brown and the later is a much clearer green.

Notice the changing of the color of the water.

Shennogxi Stream

More Stream views.

Kind of awesome!

The views of the Shennongxi Stream were breath taking. The cruise was aided by the fact that the weather provided for one of the clearest days we have had in China yet. The water was so calm and beautiful you can see the reflections of the mountain vista in the pictures I took. That part of the cruise lasted about an hour. At that point we transferred to these small wooden boats, called “Pea Pods” that were powered by native trackers, who are part of the Tujia minority in this area. Up until 1991 these trackers did their job in their “birthday suits”. These guys and our guide took us up stream were it way too shallow for the ferry boats to go.

The water took on a beautiful light green jade like color. The water was freezing cold which cooled the entire journey. They even got to a few places where they had to pull the boat over shallow areas. These guys worked their tails off. Especially since they were pulling us chunky Americans, read me. Out boat tipped them graciously for their efforts. The views were beautiful and one of our guides and the captain of the trackers sang a Tujia folk song for us. It was beautiful.

Tujia boat men

Pulling the boat, they used to do this naked!

We then returned to the ferry boat for the cruise back down the Shennongxi Stream to rendezvous with our main boat on the Yangtze. The trip back downstream was just as breath taking. It was definitely one of those, “I can not believe I am getting to do this!” moments. We just cruised and stared up at the mountains and the terraced farming. It was a shame to think that Three Gorges Dam project will cause the water rise. The water has already risen the depth of a football field. These views were awesome to begin with. I can not fathom them three hundred feet higher.

Another view
Once we returned to our boat we grabbed a quick lunch and then began a serious of naps. It was oppressively hot on the observation deck of the main boat as it cruised down the Yangtze. “Tokyo Rose” woke us up whenever there was a main sight to see, about four times. The rest of the time we spent in napping as a matter of self-preservation. The rooms had AC but the little units were fighting a losing battle. I simply skipped dinner and kept napping till the sun and temperature went down enough not to fry on the deck. The Yangtze is absolutely massive. Using my keen academic vocabulary from years of teaching Geography called it, “A big honking river!” I felt the terminology appropriate for the situation. We even saw the scene that is on the back of the Chinese 10 Yuan Note. See in pictures.

Around seven in the evening we docked at an area, that took us to a bus, which took us to a path, took us to some steps, that that swallowed that fly…, I mean took us up to the White King Temple. The temple guards the entrance to the Qutang Gorge and was the home of the Ba kingdom. What was awesome was that I was traveling in the ancient lands of things that we studied in class and saw a movie about. I know I am being redundant here but it is very cool. The whole experience is out of scene from some Indiana Jones movie. The place was so beautiful that many poets of the Tang and Song Dynasties visited the place and were inspired to write poetry here. It was well worth the two hundred some steps to get there. We found a different more scenic path down, shocker I did not follow directions.

On the way back to the main boat we walked through a small section of the town. There were fireworks going off, the streets were teaming with people; there was music and chatter everywhere. It was awesome. We bought a couple of provisions for the boat and just mingle till the boats horn beckoned us aboard.

Pete, uses some skills to open a "Juice"

By the time the boat pulled away, night had fallen and the observation deck turned into out living room. The sky was so clear you could actually see stars and a nearly full moon. The scene was indescribable. We sipped our beers and hung out while we enjoyed the cool evening breeze along the Yangtze River. I have not felt so carefree in a long time. Hell, we were on a, “Slow boat IN China!” How could it get any better?

Great Wall.., Check. Yangtze River…, Check. I guess my life is not that bad at all. Thanks, Fulbright!

More photos and videos of the day