Hong Kong Day I

Leaving the Diamond Princess on our HK Tender

This would be a different way for us to sightsee - our only planned tour was at night.  So we ate a leisurely breakfast and sauntered down to disembark.  We tendered to port, an uneventful but crowded boat ride. It's hard to believe I was ever afraid of boats, but then these boats are a lot different from the row boat dad used on Big Stone Lake.

Big Bus HOHO

Once at the dock we headed for the Big Bus Hop On Hop Off Tour on the double decker bus.  Of course we didn't have a lot of time for hopping off, which is why we will be forced into going back to Hong Kong. We headed for the top of course. If anyone hasn't taken one of these tours, most of them have a pre recorded audio and free ear plugs so that you can hear about the sights and the bus driver can concentrate on driving. The Red Route was recommended, with stops at Victoria Peak Tramway, opened  May of 1888 when the first funicular carried guests to the top. Today  -  1.4 kilometers, 4 intermediate stations, millions of visitors a year.  Maybe next year...

At a fairly young age I fantasized that I might be an ambassador to a foreign country. I practiced speaking foreign languages. But then I found out people had to actually understand what you were saying, and more importantly you actually had to learn the language so you knew what you were saying.  Discouraged by hard work required, I remained fascinated with disparate cultures.

For instance, in Hong Kong, white symbolizes death, people go to great lengths to avoid conflict, it is considered rude to do any of the following: open a gift in front of the people who gave it to you, point at anything,  or to touch statutes and monuments. Not knowing this stuff is what gets us our reputation as Ugly Americans. For the most part, it doesn't seem we really care about our reputations.

Hong Kong from the Top of our Double Decker HOHO

June through September is typhoon season. All we had was a romantic day - clouds, sprinkles, mists. I inherited from my Uncle Vint a fondness for bus pictures, which tend to be blurry and with surprise subjects, but oh well. Since cameras have improved as well as our ability to edit pictures and for all intents and purposes, unlimited capacity to store photos, I guess it doesn't matter. I still remember when 24 or 36 pictures per roll was a lot and so were frequent stops at drug stores when we ran out of film.  I am ancient.

Tom is famous here too

We traveled past the Man Mo Temple, IFC Tower, Hong Kong Jockey Club, Happy Valley Race Course, Hong Kong  Park, Ocean Park, University of Hong Kong, and the tram to Victoria Peak. Unfortunately we were already running out of time!  A Police Training College originated in 1844 with the intent of stamping out piracy with 27,000 officers trained, 166 on patrol, ensuring Hong Kong has a low crime rate even in crowded areas. Electronic billboards everywhere including this one for Tom Cruise's new movie Oblivion. 

Our Big Bus Sampan Ride to Jumbo

BB took the Coast Road to Stanley Beach passing renowned Stanley Plaza, where the rich shop, on to Repulse Bay by the South China Sea, known as a hideaway for pirates in the 1840's, today a beautiful sandy beach area.  Not being a busy market or beach kind of girl we stayed on the bus until we reached the Sampan Ride which was included with the cost of the BB Red Route and headed out to the Jumbo Floating Restaurant. I had heard Tom (Cruise) ate here as well as Queen Elizabeth.  If it was good enough for them, it was definitely good enough for me. I think we later determined that they were in the VIP area, rather than where we commoners ended up. It was great anyway. Our Sampan dropped us off there although it wasn't a scheduled stop, courtesy of some other, more aggressive tourists - they may have Russians - they acted like some of the Russians on board.

The Famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant
from our Sampan

Being a Happy Tourist at Heart, I stumbled into the 2nd floor restaurant and enjoyed a sumptous repast, whatever that means, asked ridiculous questions and took copious pictures, including some of ourselves on the 'throne'.  Having noticed a number of these in fancy restaurants, it would seem these are used especially for celebrations.  We followed our Russian friends example and pretended we were important and honored.  



Even Terry looked slightly worried
as we headed in the wrong direction



Leaving the restaurant, we lost track of the Russians and ended up on a free ferry headed for parts unknown.  We really needed to get back to the Sampan landing and noticed that our more agressive compatriots had flagged down the Big Bus Sampan and were happily on their way back to where we needed to be. 

After landing where we weren't suppose to be and attempting to find our way back on convoluted city streets, we decided we would probably get lost, so consulted the boat drivers via sign language who suggested via sign language that we get on another free ferry that would land closer to the BB Sampan dock.  We pointed, exclaimed and sighed as we sailed past it, ending up a pretty good ways (at least for Americans) from our target destination.

Terrys New Friends

While some of us were less enthusiastic than others about our adventure, we really had a lovely walk back along the water, past some amazing people-sculptures that Terry kept trying to talk to.  At least we were more confident we could find the bus stop, even if we could not see it, since we could just follow the river.  



Allen and the statuette
she really does have a head



Our night tour departed from Terminal 4 (or maybe it was 2) at 5:30 from the Cruise Port so we hopped on the BB  and weren't able to hop off until the end. 

Our night guide Allen lead us down the $40 million dollar Avenue of Stars by Victoria Harbor, much like the the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where famous Chinese stars left their hand prints in the cement. Since we were really on our way to dinner, there was only enough time for a quick walk and not much looking - we recognized a few names: Bruce Lee, Jet Li, Chow Yun-Fat out of the 100 or so possibilities.   We ended up at the 4.5 meter replica of the statuette that is given to the winners at the Hong Kong Film Awards. Some of us were better about following directions than others, so while we rushed to be on time, we ended up waiting on our dawdling comrades.

It was a quick walk to the Peking Garden for Peking Duck, where the cook cut the roasted duck into 126 pieces and a talented waiter who knew how to use chopsticks to assemble pieces of roasted duck, scallions and sauce on a wafer thin pancake and folded it into a burrito. Maybe I was really hungry, but this peking duck was really delicious.

After dinner we headed back to Victoria Harbor for the Symphony of Lights - approximately 15 minute light show presented by the city for the tourists, set to music of course, and very well attended by what looked like locals as well as tourists. There was the usual jockying for position, but there wasn't really a bad position. The lights were everywhere.

Temple Market

It was a foggy night, so I'm sure the show was not as glorious as it could have been, but then I had nothing to compare it to, so I thought it was great.

Our last stop was a quick trip to Temple Market - open 6 p.m. to midnight, where there were WAY too many people for me. It went on for blocks with us bumping into people all the way down and back. Although it was not compulsory, I somehow felt compelled to do it all. How unusual. We finally figured out we could walk on the outside of the stalls and encounter far fewer bodies. 

Everything was for sale - luggage, electronics toys, trinkets, souvenirs, jewelry, t -shirts, beer, food .... Would that I had just one bargaining bone in my body.

The last boat ride was the tender back to ship so we said a fond Chai Jin (See you again) to Hong Kong.  The Chinese don't say good-bye. I guess that means we'll have to go back!



Hong Kong from the Tender on our way back to the Diamond Princess



Shanghai



Red Sky at Morning

 We missed Shanghai!  The port was too tumultous to allow us to enter,

Where did I first hear "Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning"?  Probably Mom. A gorgeous sunrise greeted us on our sea day to Shanghai. While beautiful, it was unfortunately a predictor of things to come.

An explanation - courtesy of the Internet -  "the colors we see in the sky are due to the rays of sunlight being split into colors of the spectrum as they pass through the atmosphere and ricochet off the water vapor and particles in the atmosphere. The amounts of water vapor and dust particles in the atmosphere are good indicators of weather conditions. They also determine which colors we will see in the sky. During sunrise and sunset the sun is low in the sky, and it transmits light through the thickest part of the atmosphere. A red sky suggests an atmosphere loaded with dust and moisture particles. We see the red, because red wavelengths (the longest in the color spectrum) are breaking through the atmosphere. The shorter wavelengths, such as blue, are scattered and broken up.

When we see a red sky at NIGHT  the setting sun is sending its light through a high concentration of dust particles. This usually indicates high pressure and stable air coming in from the west, an indication that good weather will follow.

A red sky in the MORNING  reflects the dust particles of a system that has just passed from the west. This indicates that a storm system may be moving to the east. If the morning sky is a deep fiery red, it means a high water content in the atmosphere, i.e. stormy weather."

Turned into this

The day got increasingly "romantic"; our land tour guide Michael's description for misty, rainy, cloudy or otherwise less than sunshine-sparkly days. Fortunately I don't get seasick; our 'cradle' was rocking. Normally it helps me sleep, but our good friend Mary P. had passed her virus to me so my night was slightly miserable. I would have missed Shanghai anyway, so for me, not being able to port was a fortunate coincidence.

After 7 or 8 hours of waiting, the Captain gave up and headed for Hong Kong for two days.  I loved Hong Kong!

The first day we would be tendering to Hong Kong from Pier 4.  We had No Plans, so it was a 'free' day. This could be fun! 

We really paid attention at the port lecture this time.  She always gave us choices about what we could do in port with or without booking a tour. With nothing planned we considered the options:  Disneyland on Lantau, Old Hong Kong, the cable car to Victoria Park, IFC Mall, Harbor Cruise, choice of 3 Hop On Hop Off routes, Sampan Ride, Man Mo Temple, the Jumbo Floating Restaurant, Aberdeen Floating Village, Ocean Park, Big Buddha Village...let's just say there are many reasons to return.  We  coldn't resist signing up for the Symphony of Lights night tour but the day was ours to create.

Peter Tam, Lecture in the Theater

Sea days are also educational days. Tam, our educational port lecturer, born in Hong Kong referred to the many ABC's now in China - American Born Chinese. The Tams, originally dancing instructors onboard,  were recruited for the educational lectures.

In this lecture, Peter theorized that China was defined by its walls - 1 visible (the one Terry climbed - see therosgas.com) and the other 3

invisible walls. Our land tour had taken us to many of the places he mentioned: the Yangtze River, Forbidden City, Terra Cotta soldiers and the Great Wall -  built by 2 million workers to protect the food supply.  While there are other's walls in the world like Hadrians Wall in Britain and Antoine Wall in Scotland (MORE TRIPS!) the Great Wall in China is much higher and longer than the rest. 

The 3 INVISIBLE Chinese walls are (1) Confucianism (giving China a philosophy to live by - the 5 constants: humanity, righteousness, virtuous, knowledge, integrity - how to relate to others - much less talk about Godm demons and dieties -  focused on the here and now. (2) Taoism 'The Way' - observation of Yin and Yang (opposites - like female and male), practice of geomancy. Buildings commonly have a big hole in them for Che to go through and (3) Buddhism which came from India and focuses on karma, religious tolerance, reincarnation, zen.

The next lecture focused on Hong Kong. Peter mentioned some of the movies made here: Love is a Many Splendored Thing,the first James Bond, the first Batman, Suzy Wong World. They would have been good  movies to feature on our giant outdoor screen, except of course for the rain pelting us. Well maybe on our smaller indoor screen - the tv -  or in the theater.

Hong Kong, according to Tam, means Fragrant Harbor and is pronounced Shang Gong (Putonhua) Heung Gong (Cantonese) or Hong Kong (English).

Hong Kong is the youngest Chinese coastal city - less than 170 years old.  It has the most Rolls Royce Phantoms (Cost of $380,000) per capita in the world. The Penisula - the hotel we stayed at in Beijing- bought 10 of them for their clients.

9 percent of the population is a millionaire, coming in second to Singapore with 17 percent.   Only 4 percent of the US population are millionaires.  Hong Kong is the world's 3rd busiest container port, with Shanghai being number one.

Emperor Qianlong

Starting with the Mongol led Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) the Chinese prefered to be isolationalists, forbiding building of ocean going craft.  This philosophy continued with the Manchu-led Qing Dynasty.  Emperor Qianlong (1735-1796)  received a letter from English Lord McCarty in 1793 requesting to trade with China. His answer was they had no need to trade, they were the center of the world and according to Tam invited King George to make England a vassal state of China.

I read the text of Qianlong's letter, available online. I'm not sure what I was expecting - maybe something in halting primitive English, but it was pretty eloquent and amazingly well written.  As far as I could tell, the closest it got to offering vassal status to England was  "It behoves you, O King, to respect my sentiments and to display even greater devotion and loyalty in future, so that, by perpetual submission to our Throne, you may secure peace and prosperity for your country hereafter." From E. Backhouse and J. O. P. Bland, Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1914), pp. 322­331
Website: http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1793qianlong.asp

Back in the day, in order for a foreigner to live in Peking (also known as Beijing) the foreigner had to adopt Chinese dress, was confined to precincts designated for foreigners, and was NEVER permitted to return home. So I guess we are fortunate today even if we can't connect to websites like facebook and blogspot, because we can LEAVE. We met a US citizen working in Beijing who said he lived in one of the outer rings of the Beijing and Tour Guide Michael also referenced the outer 'ring' where foreigners lived.

The Chinese sold silk, tea and porcelin, much in demand in the western world producing a net influx of silver.  This changed with the English bringing opium from India, which had been used medicinally and recreationally since the mid 15th century.  Opium was not an illegal drug, or even undesirable then.  But the result was silver began flowing out of China at a rate alarming to the Emperor and productivity probably decreased. In 1839 they declared opium was illegal, closed the channel to trading. British surrendered the opium and it was burned.

The British government demanded compensation...so started the Opium War.  The wooden ships of China were no match for the British navy.  In the Nanjing (North Capital) Treaty of 1842 Hong Kong was ceded to Britain as a colony along with a number of smaller cities and received monetary compensation for the burnt opium. A part of the terms included  Extraterritoriality for British citizens living in Hong Kong - they were 'exempted from jurisdiction of local law'.  Any 'crimes' they committed were referred to English courts.
After the 2nd Opium War, instigated by 'unfair' treatment of British merchants, Kowloon was ceeded to the British. It was about the money more than it was about the drugs.  Although today we punish a country by NOT trading with them, in those days the punishment for losing the war was forcing them TO trade

In 1997 Hong Kong and Kowloon were returned to the People's Republic of China with the provision that for 50 years they would be a Special Administrative Region of the PRC; i.e. things will remain as they are.
For the time being, although Hong Kong is now part of China, the Chinese Yuan is not accepted.

As Tams observed,  Chinese Culture and British Rule seemed to be a winning combination. 

Arriving in Hong Kong

Nagasaki Japan

Jiroko (meaning rich and nice according to Jiroko) was a wealth of information.  On our way she told us that Japan was composed of 4 major islands and 7,000 smaller islands.  Who knew?

Guide Jiroko

Also I learned that Japan is 380,000 square kilometers, 75 % mountainous and 15 % agricultural with 126 million people - average of 340 people per square kilometer which is 10 times the number of people per square kilometer in the United States.  The volcanic area of Japan has 20,000 hot springs and an abundance of good cuisine and lodging. The price of a condo ranges from 300,000 to 600,000 with a 10 to 30 percent downpayment and 20 to 30 years to repay the mortgages. Japan has 3 seasons, spring, rain and summer. We were at the end of spring and many of the cherry trees were still in blossom.

Nagasaki is located on the northwest side of the island of Kyushu, almost directly across from South Korea. In 1568  the first shipyard was built paving the way for the opening of the port in 1641 for trade with the outside world, while the rest of  Japan  sealed itself off from the world. At that time only China, Korea, Portugal and Holland were allowed to trade with Japan as long as they vowed to stay clear of Christianity. Eventually it became the most westernized city in Japan.



Epicenter of the blast



It is sadly famous as the site of one of the two nuclear detonations that ended WW II at 11:02 a.m. on August 9th (unfortunately also our wedding anniversary), 1945.  The bomb, nicknamed "Fatman' exploded with a force of 21,000 tons of TNT 1,600 feet above Nagasaki's industrial Urakami Valley.

 40,000 Japanese died instantly. Of the 240,000 Japanese there 150,000 were affected.  One of the heroes was Dr. Nagai Takeshi who survived although he had already been diagnosed with leukemia.  His wife perished. His children who had been sent to the country lived. He spent the rest of his life (he died at the age of 43) caring for his two children and those afflicted by the bomb in his rebuilt house Nyokodo, which translates to 'love thy neighbor as thyself'.  He wrote several books before his death. One of them, The Bells of Nagasaki, was made into a motion picture despite controversy. I thought briefly about getting a copy of the book until I found out it was selling for $465.44 on Amazon. The cheapest used book was 80$.



from sister city St Paul MN



 Statute of Peace



We visited the Peace Park first - simple and beautiful with statues from around the world commemorating the desire for peace in place of war.  The 30 ton, 30 foot centerpiece was created in 1955, and stands on a base 13 feet high and cost thirty million yen donated by people all over the world- one arm outstretched to the sky warning about the horrors of war and the incoming bomb, one arm outstretched inviting peace, eyes closed in prayer for the victims. I would tell you what Terry's slightly inappropriate but funny nonetheless comment was but I can't bring myself to do it.  Let's just say I wanted to crawl under the cement.  He has That Voice that broadcasts to everyone on the plaza without the assistance of electronic equipment.

Nagasaki today - from viewpoint at the Museum

Detail from a statute at the entrance to museum

Our next stop was the Atomic Bomb Museum which detailed the unleashing of the bomb and the effect that it had on the city. Jiroko was not allowed to 'guide' us in the museum as quiet was mandated within; flash photography was not allowed. 



11:02 AM August 9, 1945



I found it fascinating, disheartening, and hopeful. A clock which stopped at the exact time of the blast was preserved. Exhibits detailed what lead up to the decision to bomb Nagasaki; a fateful  last minute clearing of the clouds and the pilots last chance to use it; avoiding failure should they have to return to base with it;  the 10,000 degree temperature that incinerated a town and many of its inhabitants, leaving the survivors craving and crying for water.  The mass destruction and terror of that night  a poignant reminder of why the world must never again resort to using a real weapon of mass destruction.

There are two sides to every story, of course, ours being that we ended the war and saved a lot of american lives by sacrificing this town. It was the 2nd bomb and Japan surrendered immediately.  Further justified by the fact that we were unwilling participants in a war they dragged us into by bombing Pearl Harbor.  War is just an ugly business.




Paper cranes

 

Student Art Displays at the Museum

The museum is clearly a monument to the horror of war and beauty of peace with paper cranes, paintings, statutes and water fountains incorporated throughout the building and grounds.

On our return to port Jiroko told us that there were 100,000 shrines in Japan that were visited on important life events: wedding ceremonies, birth of children, passing an exam...happy occasions.  80 percent of the country goes to a shrine on New Years Day.

Funerals take place in the Temple (Buddha). The tradition  is you are born in Shinto and die in a Temple. 90 million Buddhists and 100 million Shintoists (if that is a word) confirm the fact that most Japanese believe in both religions. On Christmas most become Christians.

Jiroko told us about Dejima - an artificial island constructed by wealthy merchants for the Portuguese traders in the 17th century. Nagasaki was the sole trading port in Japan from 17th through mid 19th century. Like most of our visits, much was left unseen. Dejima, Shimbara Castle, Samurai Village, Mt. Inasa...Just cause for another cruise.



My Saki Tiger
Nagasaki, Japan outside the Atomic Bomb Museum
Waiting patiently for his wandering spouse and checking voicemails

Busan Korea

Busan from our Balcony

Terry got his Great Wall and I got Korea and Vietnam. Seems like an equal trade. Terry served in Korea when he was young and was less than enthusiastic about revisiting those countries. Our first stop, Busan, looked nothing like the Korea of his past.

The 38th parallel is the most militarized border in the world. The war cost the lives of around 34,000 Americans and 1.1 to 1.8 million Koreans. Some estimate a total casualty count of 2,800,000 counting North Korea (military and civilian), South Korea, China and UN troops.


With North Korea promising to attack someone or everyone, I was a little apprehensive about our visit, but the Captain and staff assured us that threats had been evaluated and we would be safe. We were visiting just a corner of the country. Thankfully they were right.

DOA

My laptop was officially pronounced dead. It refused to launch windows and the hinge on the left was broken. It has served me well through many trips. This was the first time I carried it in a backpack (i.e. Terry didn't take care of it). That may have been a mistake. Although Terry had his, I am not great at sharing and less adept than many in familiarizing myself with new and different equipment, be it software OR hardware.  We toyed with the idea of a replacement but that seemed inadvisable so far from home.

Our excellent port lecturer told us about many attractions that we didn't see, given that we had already purchased a tour; the KFC with a peking duck sandwich, the site of

the International Film Festival and camera guy statue.  At the theaters, they serve dried fishy stuff instead of, or maybe in addition to, popcorn. I'm maybe not too sad that I missed that.  We also missed the Busan Museum with life size dioramas  the UN Memorial Casualty which still contains 36 Americans, and a spa where being naked is normal.  Next trip.  We did get glimpses of city life as we motored through it and I did take the obligatory Uncle Vint pictures from a moving car which generally turned out to be a blurred mess. They do challenging things with motorcycles.

Means "to be good"

Our first stop was at the Beomeosa Temple, one of  South Korea's largest temples, which dates back to 678 A.D. There was a rather steep climb to the buildings, so some of us elected to stay at the bus.  The main temple hall was built in 1614. The swastika, our guide explained, predated its use by the Nazis, and in general meant  to be good or to be with a higher self and was incorporated by Buddhism and eastern religions long before being corrupted by the Nazis. 

A number of temples were being used by the followers who were less than enthusiastic about us visiting. I have to admit I would not like having a tour through my church if I was trying to pray .  Beomosa temple has several national treasures, but I was more attracted to the natural beauty of flowers, trees and hills.





Venting

Well this is definitely a challenge. In Beijing (well everywhere in China) we were blocked from face book and blogspot.  Emails were erratic and some of them were aborted. I got strange bounce back codes that seemed to indicate they were cancelled intentionally. Our China guide told us they had comparable programs in China for  Chinese only, but the government had intentionally blocked some of those programs we had come to expect everywhere and monitored everything. Although Terry had reservations about visiting what is now a quasi Communist country I couldn’t believe in 2013 that such restrictions existed.

On the Riverboat Victoria Salina we experienced the same frustrations.  Additionally the power on the boat was erratic, so it was at your own risk if you wanted to try charging your electronics equipment in your own room. We did and at some point my ancient laptop which was free to begin with and rebuilt several times by talented sons and husband went black.

It did not help that I had been lugging around my ancient laptop  in a backpack without any additional protection, thereby stressing the odd looking hinge on the back.  Somewhere between the last stop in Beijing and boarding the Princess I broke the hinge.

So now we are on board the beautiful Diamond Princess and I have no computer. There is a reason they call it a personal computer; it can be customized for a person, me.  My computer had all the programs, ids, documents and pictures that I was familiar with.

They have a wonderful Internet facility here, but as far as I can tell, no ability to upload pictures, so what I have finally been FORCED to do is use Terry’s Acer. He loves it.  I can’t even see the screen.  He encrypts the hard drive with some impossible password so I have to get assistance just to bring it up. He uses a mouse, while I prefer the touch pad.  His word processing programs (he has several) all seem to work far differently from what I’m used to, if they work at all. Not being content with one browser, he has 4; 3 of which don’t work as intended (as far as I‘m concerned).  Because I have such a hard head I had to find all of  that out myself in a slow painful process of exploration.

Add to that the fact I am about 10 days behind in actually writing this blog and it now takes much longer for me to do it. ARGHHH!

Oh well, what are vacations for except to learn new things, even when you don’t want to.

Goodbye Dear Laptop 

The hinge on the left is what broke.  It LOOKS okay, but when you open it, the wires are exposed and the connection broken.

On the bright side, I will get a new laptop, and hopefully it will be a Mac!  Mary has been trying to convince me for years that it is simpler and more dependable. Not to mention a few pounds lighter than my old one. Just won’t be getting it on this side of the world. My paranoid delusions now extend to hardware and software produced in communist countries. Another reason to take trips - i realize how blessed I am to live in the USA.  I am frequently guilty of taking my freedoms for granted.

Three Gorges Dam

Overview of the Dam - best view we had on this romantic day...

Inspired by Chairman Mao's poem which begins 'Wall of stone...will stand upstream....Hold back Wushan's clouds, the intent of the dam was to tame the mighty Yangtze.

Prior to the dam a winch stations ware required to pull a boat upstream on the shallow part of the Yangtze, along with the required effort of trackers in some areas. The dam solved many of these problems although it
submerged 13 cities, 140 towns, 1352 villages. People were relocated to new towns and villages. The stories vary as to whether or not they are happy about it. One of our guides said that she received 600 yuan for one year.  The formula for compensation was based on how much the individual lost due to the relocation


According to Wikipedia and our guide "The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectric dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping.  It is the largest power station in terms of installed capacity (22,500 MW). The dam was completed and fully functional as of July 2012 except for a ship lift. "

Ships passing through

The dam allows free tours, takes 3 ½ to 4 hours to go through it.  They are currently working on the ship lock system. It has 10 chambers.  (lots of locks, no bagels - joke courtesy of our guide. As Guide Michael would say it was a very romantic day...meaning misty with limited visibility. On the way to the dam we saw the locks. 

 The dam area itself was guarded allowing limited entry. The grounds were beautiful; the escalators a welcome relief from stairs.

Terry and I shooting each other on the escalator ride

 I climbed the monument and took pictures from the top.  The sculpture at the front is meant to represent three men fighting with the water in an attempt to tame the river. That could be me standing at the top watching the cascading falls below.

The view from the top was of one of the concrete blocks  used to stop the water flow so that the dam could be built.  Each block weights 18 to 28 tons.  It's sharp angles allow it to be placed deep in the earth.

View from the top

Terry would like you to believe that he picked up this rock and put it on its appointed stand, but I know it was actually rescued from the river before the dam covered up the river bed with water.

 For those of you who might be interested in the the facts, I bought the book.  Chances are I will be able to get it in the new suitcase that we are going to have to buy to get all the stuff we're buying home...

Guide Steven said the river is rising each year because of all the silt that is added to the river.  His joke:
Why is the Yangtze River so rich? It has two banks with many many deposits.

Mighty Yangtzee and Beautiful Gorges

Entering the Gorges

Information from Steve Yu,
Victoria Selina Riverboat Guide

Steven started with Victoria Selina 10 years ago in housekeeping. Then graduated to bar waiter, tender supervisor and in 2010 attended a small vocational school to be a guide.  They taught him about tourism, English and his country’s geography, history and culture, the three Gorges and the Dam that created the form of the river we were sailing on.

There are two major rivers in China,,,, in the south the Yangtze - 3rd longest in the world, in the north the Yellow river. - 5th longest . Yangtze in Chinese is Chang Jiang which means Long River. 1/3 of China’s people - 400 million - live along the Yangtze. China has 1.3 billion people, 1/15th of the worlds population. The Yangtze is 4,400 kilometers - 2700 miles long, stretching from Chungquin to Shanghai.

The beginning of many photo ops

Quitang Gorge -Shengnong Tributory

toWe would be going as far as Wuhan, passing through the most beautiful part of the river with the 3 Gorges Dam.

The three Gorges are Quitang, 8 kilometers, Wu, 4 kilometers and Xiling 761 kilometers.

In the Old Days

Our Tracker Boat

Probably the worst job along the Yangtze disappeared in the 1960’s along with the creation of the dam. Before the dam the waters of the Yangtze were difficult to navigate. During parts of it boats were actually pulled upstream by a team of trackers hauling the boat. In some cases the trackers shed their clothes as they became an impediment to the back breaking work of lugging boats upstream.

Our trackers had clothes on.  At one point we steered toward the shore. 3 of the trackers exited the boat and with the use of a rope pulled the boat for a few hundred feet along a well worn path.  The ropes had cut a ridge through the mountain side. Although the fear was mostly self induced I did wonder if we were going to tip over and have to swim for it.  I kept an eye out for rocks that might be able to sustain life. One of our trackers was a senior citizen - 65 years old!  The oars were remarkably skinny...not necessary today but in the old days they were necessary because of the shallow water. Thanks to Terry for asking!

Although its pretty difficult, like impossible to see, there is a hanging coffin about half way down this crevice. It was the tradition to respect the dead by placing their coffins like this for the period of mourning.


Before the 50’s parts of the river consisted of roaring waters and huge rocks. Navigational conditions were very bad.  A winch station was used to pull the boat upstream.

The Chinese Dynasties Show and City Lights

This is the theater/stage/dance floor where EVERYTHING happened

These girls worked in the boat as well as performed

Dances were performed in a variety of traditional ethnic costumes

After the show we noticed another show along the river - City Lights

From the upper deck of the Victoria Selina