Yangtze River

Back in Chengdu, we transferred to a bus for a five-hour ride to Chongqing, where we were to board a ship for our Yangtze River cruise. To reach the city we traveled southeast on a two-lane highway lined with cabbage patches, small lots of farmlands, terraced vegetable gardens, brick farmhouses with rooftop terraces, and lotus pools amidst wet rice fields. Because of its location in this fertile area, Chongqing, whose name means “double happiness,” is China’s largest municipality, with a population of 33 million, 6 million of whom live in the urban core. As we approached the city, new towns with apartments filled the landscape. Laundry hung on each balcony, as if this was washday for all. At 6 pm children walked home from school alongside tree trunks painted white so as to be visible to traffic.

An impressive concrete and steel tollgate ushered us into the mountain city, which is also the center of China’s heavy industry. In rush hour traffic we inched our way along, surrounded by trucks loaded with citrus fruit, cars, and motorcycles, toward the concrete landscape of high-rises barely visible in the thick fog. A monorail train sped by, while long lines of people waited at bus stops to return home. After dinner at a local restaurant, we were finally at a dock to board our ship, the Victoria Star, owned by a Chinese American in New York City. Suddenly a large crowd of porters surrounded us, pleading to carry our bags. We had to descend several flights of stairs and pass through other cruise ships to reach ours. At the end of a very long day, it felt good to settle down in our cabins with a view of the river.

The Victoria Star set sail on the Yangtze River at 9 pm with 160 passengers. Old homes along the riverbank and apartment blocks set back on the hillside created a picturesque nightscape. These hills had been hideouts for soldiers during World War II as China fought against Japan. Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government, which was based here, ended when he left for Taiwan in 1949. In the morning the ship docked at the famous Red Pagoda of Shibaozhai. This twelve-story structure, built without any nails, rests against a massive rock. The road leading to it is lined with stalls of local crafts. I bought a T-shirt splashed with bamboo images, accompanied by a poem in Chinese characters that read: “No matter which way the wind blows, bamboo will spread its young shoots.”

Our group opted to visit a family that had lost its farmland to the dam project and been moved uphill by the government. The farmer was home taking care of his eighteen-month-old granddaughter; his wife was at the market selling goods. His daughter worked in a toy factory; his son was a chauffeur. His daughter-in-law, who was a sales clerk in the clothing section of a supermarket, came home only on weekends because of the hour-and-a-half commute each way. She rented a room near her job. Together with her husband she earned about $200 a month. To make ends meet, the family lived all together in one apartment above the garage of their house and rented the top two stories. The former farmer admitted that his family’s living conditions had improved with the move to this two‑bedroom apartment with interior plumbing, but he missed working. Now he was a full-time babysitter.

Back at the ship, we had an introductory lecture to the Yangtze River. After the Nile and the Amazon, it is the third-longest river in the world. The Yangtze originates in the Himalayas of Tibet. Its upper reaches are dangerous for navigation. The middle and lower sections, which extend from Chongqing to Shanghai, are fertile lands. It has 700 tributaries; 450 million people, one-third of the country, live along its shores. They have cut down trees to develop farmland, created mudslides, and ended the bird population. Industrial plants have polluted the air and the waters, drastically reducing the numbers of dolphins, alligators, and fish.

The Three Gorges Dam project is underway to control flooding; 200 floods to date have claimed 142,000 lives. 1.3 million people will be relocated, eight cities will be submerged, and Chongqing will be on a big lake created by the new dam. Also, coal will be removed from the mines and buildings dynamited, in order to facilitate navigation. Started in 1994, the dam is two-thirds finished; it is China’s biggest infrastructure project since the Great Wall. I looked out the window as I listened. The tranquil countryside where farmers burned garbage for fertilizer seemed oblivious to the future. China would change forever.

Our three-day cruise was packed with opportunities to learn about cultural traditions. Dr. Hu, a Chinese doctor, gave the first presentation on age-old Chinese medicine, which emphasizes the whole body. The color of the face, tongue, and palm indicates the balance of yin and yang. Treatment may be with one of some 10,000 types of medicine, or with alternatives such as acupuncture, acupressure, scraping, and cupping, which is good for muscles and nerves. The body is thought to have fourteen main channels, which connect at so-called “acupoints.” Acupuncture needles stay in for fifteen minutes to open up blocked channels. The doctor applied needles to a volunteer with a stiff arm and neck, and then cupped her back. The problem area swelled up and turned dark purple with the suction of the heated cup. The doctor proceeded to show us various pressure points for treating ailments such as motion sickness, insomnia, stomachaches, and toothaches.

Other lectures were on pearls and traditional painting. The Chinese have cultivated fresh water pearls since ancient times. They induce an oyster to produce up to 20 pearls, by introducing bits of soft muscle from another oyster as an irritant. The size of a pearl depends on the number of years it is kept in the water. The quality of a pearl reflects its size, roundness, and lack of flaws. The mineral elements in the water determine the pearl’s color. Real pearls feel coarse and grainy, as opposed to smooth plastic ones.

Tools of traditional Chinese painting include brushes of various thickness made of spring bamboo; goat, horse, and wolf hair, depending on the detail desired; seals made of carved stone and inked in red; black “dragon” ink; and ink stones. Traditionally in black and white, these paintings are made on silk or rice paper. For embroidery painting, the design is first traced and then filled in with needlework. Mr. Gu, a painter, gave us a demonstration.

It was exciting to enter the first of the Three Gorges, the Gutang Gorge, carved by the river through limestone highlands. It took us 20 minutes to go through the dramatic sheer cliffs of this gorge, the shortest of the three. Throughout history people have been in awe of these cliff faces, carving stairways, placing tombs, and inscribing poems on the mountainside.

Following dinner, our talented cruise staff put on a fashion show modeling exquisite silk costumes from different dynasties, as well as a variety of traditional dress from all regions of China. It was great fun to see the evolution of costumes throughout history, and then watch the models in modern outfits worn today.

The next shore excursion took us to Wushan. We took a motorized boat down the Daning River, through the scenery of the Lesser Three Gorges, spotting little monkeys and admiring the green waters of the Emerald Gorge. We then transferred to sampans to admire the shores of the Madu River. The sampan captain shared his straw fisherman’s hat and goat hair cape for photos, as he threaded the boat through narrow passageways by steep rock walls. We passed by precipices, wooden coffins tucked into ledges by the ancient Ba people, high water marks, deep valleys, a lagoon where a villager sang as she did her laundry, a peddlers’ market, sweet potato crops, and ducks.

Continuing down the Yangtze, we entered the Wu Gorge, the second of the three, its sharp peaks jutting into the haze. Free-flowing imaginations spotted a beautiful girl on top of the mountain. The river traffic was brisk — government cruise ships, ferry boats taking people between towns on the river, cargo barges, and hydrofoil speed boats covering long distances in a short time. Mournful horns greeted one another as ships billowed black smoke. In two years the water would rise to 175 meters, so everything below that level was being taken down to avoid hazardous navigation and river pollution.

Strong winds prevented us from flying a kite on the top deck; I did, however, attend a workshop on kites. In ancient times the Chinese used kites to send messages. The craft is passed on through generations. To make a kite, bamboo is bent into different shapes and covered with silk for durability. Afterwards images symbolizing good wishes are painted onto the silk — a dragon for power and prosperity, a catfish for good fortune, or a butterfly for harmony, which is what I received.

A session called “China Today” was a time for questions and answers. China has a serious water shortage affecting 300 cities; water is diverted from south to north. Only 10% of the land is fertile; most land is covered with mountains. There are 900 million farmers, 75% of whom have no health care. 72% of the population have no health insurance; those who work for the government or industry do. 30% of the country are members of the Communist Party. Students apply to join the party following high school. After a period of observation by officials and proof of atheism, candidates are allowed into the party. Both men and women do military service. It is against the law to carry guns or knives. China imports oil from Russia; it has a 20-year national oil reserve for military use. Use of private cars is controlled. 72% of energy comes from coal, 4% is nuclear, and the remainder is hydroelectric. By bringing technology to the countryside, the government is trying to achieve a greater balance between the rural and urban population.

The Xiling Gorge, the last and longest of the three, is known as the most treacherous historically. Navigational buoys surrounded us as we approached. We cleared military security and got in line, along with barges carrying lumber and coal to sail through the Three Gorges locks. Meanwhile we attended the Captain’s Farewell Banquet, followed by the Victoria Cabaret, a talent show by crew and audience participants. We started at the second level of the river and moved up to the fifth level in five hours, docking at Sandouping for the night. It was worth staying up till 1:30 am to witness this exciting passage.

In the morning we visited the dam site, chosen on purpose near a granite quarry. To ensure the strength of the structure, concrete is mixed with granite. 17,000 Chinese are currently working on the dam day and night, down from 28,000 in its early stages. The dam will have 45 gates and 32 turbines, 13 of which are already working. Supervised by 2000 Chinese engineers, it is projected to cost 28 billion dollars, including the relocation of residents. In addition to controlling severe flooding in the area and harnessing necessary hydroelectric potential, the dam will open up the Yangtze to 10,000-ton ships, and the water collected will be used for irrigation.

Back at the ship, the big hit of the buffet lunch was fried onion rings, as we set sail through the eastern section of the Xiling Gorge to the port of Yi Chang. Porters carrying luggage left an indelible image of our disembarkation. Carrying suitcases stacked in threes, tied in ropes, and suspended from yokes on their shoulders, smallish porters had to climb steep stairs to reach the waiting buses.

Yi Chang is a new city of 4 million, mostly composed of relocated people. It is situated on low hills with tangerine and orange trees. Here we started another five-hour bus ride, this time on a bumpy single-lane road. We passed the time by snacking or sleeping. Since we were traveling south, the weather was becoming warmer. At each rest stop we loaded up with snacks, such as sweet potato crackers, peanuts, candied bananas, ice cream, and cold drinks. Workers expanding the road covered the freshly poured cement with wet rags to keep it from cracking — a technique unfamiliar to me. Until the road expanded into two lanes, we were stuck behind a tarpaulin-covered truck. Impatient drivers passed us on the right, but then we came upon a truck that had driven off into a ditch.

The landscape changed to cotton fields, canola flowers, and ponds with turtles. Due to the high nutritional value of turtles, people take turtle soup to hospital patients. When the temperature hits 40º C in the summer, the food of choice is duck soup to cool off. We passed by storage areas that people rented to protect valuables from flooding. There were ancestral temples in the fields for burying containers of ashes following cremation. Land belongs to the government and is leased by farmers. Trucks loaded with oxygen tanks sped by, spitting white bubbles to keep fish in transport alive. At the market the price of fish drops drastically if they are dead. Finally we came onto a three-lane highway with bicycle paths. We were in Wuhan.

Wuhan is a city of 8 million. As we drove through the streets, it appeared to be a vibrant place, with Budweiser and Coca-Cola ads. We arrived in the evening and were happy to be out of the bus. However, since we had a morning flight to Hong Kong, we called it a day and happily settled into our hotel for a shower and dinner. On October 1st, China’s National Day, we flew to Hong Kong.