Fresh Off Boat (FOB)

Hey folks,
So I'm sitting in a busy internet cafe in a brand new city here along the Yangtze river. The internet cafe is jammed w/ people from the rest of the tour group and Chinese teens playing internet games. I reckon' there isn't a whole lot to do around here, so they play computer war games all day long.

To pick up where I left off... I think I left you guys in Yangshuo.

Yangshuo is a backpacker's paradise. Absolutely amazing. I hope you enjoyed the pics. Later that morning, I was having brekkie w/ some of the tour group members and a little boy wandered into the restaurant. It's not uncommon for hawkers to wander into restaurants selling you stuff while you eat. He spoke perfect English though and sat with us for quite awhile talking to us. Joe (the 8 yrs old) and I ended up playing a game of Chinese chess. I WON! Hahaha... victory... even though he tried cheating a few times.

That night we hopped on our 2nd overnight train to Wuhan, which was pretty brutal. It was followed up by another 5 hours bus ride to Yichang. I was pretty exhausted and drifting in and out of consciousness b/c I hadn't slept well on the train. I woke up to someone slurping their noodles really loudly and Chinese music playing over the speakers early in the morning.

China is increasingly becoming layered with Super Highways and Expressways, which ironically enough are privatized and you pay a toll each time. They were pretty much empty which made for an efficient ride to Yichang.

Yichang is a relatively small city by China standards - only 4 million people. There were no tourist attractions to speak of and very few foreigners so we sort of stood out when we walked around. Yichang is a city located on the Yangtze river (the 3rd longest river in the world and the most important river in China). Lots of people would stare at us as we walked by but at least there weren't many hawkers.

A group of us wandered in the area around the railway station and stumbled across an old amusement park which was pretty much empty. And it was a Saturday too. It was pretty much abandoned except for a few vendors running the ride, which didn't look particularly safe. What possessed us to ride the ferris wheel.... I'm not quite sure but we did get some nice views of the overall city. We left one person behind to go run for help in case the ferris wheel broke down or we got stuck. I think we were the only customers in the park. One old fighter jet had been transformed into a little obstacle course / trampoline for kids. So yeah, we survived the ferris wheel...

Afterwards we took a bus to the Three Gorges Dam project - also called the Second Great Wall of China. In short, it is a massive undertaking. It was started in 1994 to help produce hydroelectricity (the equivalent of 18 nuclear power reactors), help w/ transportation (a number of ship locks are built to transport big barges right into western china), and to help control flooding. It's suppose to cost $24 billion USD, but I think it'll probably be more. And it involves the displacement of 15-20 million people as the area surrounding the river is flooded.

In fact, the water has risen dramatically over the last few years. Now to approximately 135m deep, and will continue to rise to 175m by 2008 when the project is suppose to be completed. Hence the "new city" that I"m currently visiting. It's amazing how the Chinese government has undertaken this massive project. Literally constructing brand new cities along the Yangtze. Super highways and bridges criss-cross the Yangtze. It's pretty insane and bold.

After visiting the Three Gorges dam (and getting an interesting commentary on Taiwan from the tour guide....), we boarded our Yangtze river cruise for 2 nights. It actually wasn't as "rustic" as I had imagined it to be. It was quite good. Today we got off the boat to visit some villages and areas that will be submerged in the next 2 years. I guess you could call me a FOB. ;) It's so weird cruising on a boat, - almost at the top of all these mountains. It just boggles my mind what mankind is capable of doing. And then later today, I sat on the front deck of the boat, and just read, and listened to my MP3 player while the world drifted by. I personally think that some of the countryside looks something like a scene out of Tuscany - little houses and trees, and rice fields dot the countryside. It was very picturesque.

I'll try to post some pictures sometime. It's not too often that I stumble across an "english" computer. I have difficulty navigating through the various screens in Chinese.

China as a country really blows my mind. It is so overwhelming in size. The people here work incredibly hard and seem to keep their head down and just keep pressing on. A bit different from the "comfort" that I'm used to in Canada. Anyway, that's it for now. Take care. Tomorrow we head for Chongqing in Sichuan province. I'm looking forward to some authentic Sichuan (Szechuan) food. :D