China Part 3

Day 10 - Bullet train to Yichang and our Yangtze river cruise.  Peter again used his connections to get us on the train a few minutes before the other passengers.  He was staying in Shanghai to meet another group, so we were now on our own until we arrived at the ship.  Some of the people had given their luggage to porters, who loaded on the train before our arrival.  We piled the rest of the suitcases on top and found our seats.  The train quickly filled up with locals.  I noticed a commotion in the back with our luggage.  2 train attendants came, then a security guard and soon some of our luggage was in the aisle.  There was still a heated debate taking place and since one of the bags were mine, I wandered back to see what was going on.  The porters had stuffed them behind the back seats, but there were so many, they pushed the back of the seat forward and passengers couldn’t use them.  The guard spoke limited English and told me what the problem was.  The 5 affected passengers wanted 5 of us to trade seats with them.  We all had a 6.5-hour ride, so that wasn’t happening.  Eventually we worked out a solution.  Everyone had put their small backpacks and carryon luggage in the overhead luggage racks.  I suggested we take them down to make room for the bigger suitcases.  We managed to squeeze in all but 6 of them, so we took the leftovers to the passageway between cars and, using my extra luggage strap, tied them together and then to a rail.  They were secure and wouldn’t roll around.  Everyone was happy, we all shook hands and the very timid security guard looked very relieved.  Apparently, I made friend with the 2 train attendants as well.  During the ride, I bought a beef and veggie meal.  One happened to walk by as I was about half way through my meal.  She took my bowl and showed me the hidden compartment underneath that held a bowl of rice.  We all had quite the laugh over that, especially my friends next to me who earlier had polished off the whole meal with no idea they only ate half of it.  

 Day 11, Yangtze River.  We boarded our ship next to the Three Gorges Dam; the worlds largest power station and it was HUGE.  The ship was much larger than expected, with 5 decks of rooms, each with a private balcony and bathroom.  There were 2 dining rooms, a sun deck, a swimming pool and sauna, and my favorite; a spa. We had yet another sales pitch, this time for upgrades.  As they were talking, the message therapist came by to give us a sample.  I was hooked of course!   But first we had a shore excursion to the Three Gorges Tribe Scenic Spot.   

Of all the things we’ve done in China, this seemed to be the most authentic and least commercial.  It’s a beautiful spot located in the Xiling Gorge of Yichang city.   Our tour guide was from the Tujia ethnic minority and shared some of her customs with us.  Traditionally, the young, unmarried girls wear a small basket on their back.  If they are available for marriage, they put flowers in their basket.  If a boy is interested, he’ll touch her flowers.  If she’s interested, she’ll let him.  Once they marry, they traded their small basket for one large enough to hold a baby.  Sure enough, I saw a couple of ladies with a baby in her basket.  We only saw one of the villages, The Village on the Water.  We walked on a wooden pathway through the woods next to a stream.  On the stream were several traditional boats with actors. Think Williamsburg, or other pioneer village in the US where costumed actors portray scenes from our historic past. The first was a fishing boat where the entire family lived year-round.  There was a flat bottom boat with a woman playing a flute, another woman in a pagoda played a different instrument, a different kind of fishing boat, traditional fishing nets, and a water wheel.  At the end of the path we could see monkeys in the distance.  Aside from a few goats, these were the only animals we saw on the entire trip. Oh, and one poor camel for tourist to take pictures with.

We also saw a short play ‘Cry Wedding ceremony’.  It depicted a Tujia traditional wedding.  The father arranged a young girl’s marriage and the girl cried for 30 days.  This was to signify her sadness at leaving her family and was supposed to bring good luck. Our guide told us that girls were taught to cry on purpose from 3 years old. She said modern girls only cry for 3 or 4 days.  

Day 12 – Yangtze River.  We took a boat ride on the Shennong Stream, a smaller tributary of the Yangtze river.  We traded our huge cruise ship for a much smaller ferry and headed up the tributary, past imposing rock walls and some beautiful scenery, even with the ever- present haze.  High up in a crevasse on one sheer cliff face, we saw a hanging coffin, resting on 2 wooden poles with each end embedded in the rock wall.  These hanging coffins dot the cliffs of the Yangtze river area (as well as parts of Indonesia and the Philippines).  This funeral custom is an ancient ritual for some of the local ethnic groups.  The practice of hanging the coffins probably originated as a way to stop animals from disturbing the dead.  It was also believed to bless the soul eternally.  The mountain cliffs were thought of as a stairway to heaven.  The higher up the coffin was, the closer the deceased was to heaven.  What ever the reason for doing it, it was mind boggling how anyone managed to get the two beams and coffin up there and for it to stay. 

After about a 30 min ride, we arrived at a dock where we transferred to much smaller, handcrafted row boats, this time about 15 people per boat.  Doing the rowing were 5 men, ranging in age from early 20’s to more than 70.  These were farmers who were also boatmen.  3 in the front and 2 in the back, with one of them manning the rudder.  The other 4 rowed with huge handcrafted paddles. They did so standing up, putting their whole body into rowing.  At one point, when the river became shallow, 2 of them jumped out and pulled us along with handmade bamboo ropes.  They jumped back in and we rowed some more.  The entire river was dotted with these row boats and several times we bumped into each other.  Judging from the laughing rowers, this is not entirely by accident.  As we soared along, our guide told us more about the Tujia customs.  She said they have no written language but like many Native American tribes in the US, they have a rich oral history.  She sang us a love song and taught us a few words in her language, which of course, none of us could remember.  She pointed to a very high pedestrian suspension bridge over the river and said when she was done for the day, that’s how she got home.  At the end of the boat ride, the rivermen pointed their boats toward home and headed off, changing from rivermen back to farmers.  They rowed downstream a bit, tied up their boats and headed up a very steep goat path that would probably take us several hours to climb.  When we passed them no more than 20 minutes later, they were so high they were hard to make out.  They were at least ½ to ¾ of the way to the top.  Mind you, some of these men were in their 60’s and 70’s. 

In the afternoon, the cruise ship passed through the Wu Gorge and Qutang Gorge and we were treated to some beautiful scenery.  This region of China is very mountainous, but the peaks are not very high.  They are densely forested and not very populated as far aw we could see.

Day 13 – Yangtze river.  I decided I needed a day of rest, so I didn’t do the shore excursion.   

 

Day 14, time to say good bye to the river and hello to Chongqing.  After dropping our bags off, we headed to the Chongqing Zoo to see some red and giant pandas.  The zoo was very beautiful, but the animal enclosures were small and not much more than an enclosure with grass and walls.  In the west, they at least try to give the animals some stimulation with toys and different platforms to climb and sleep on.  Here, not so much.  I did get some great pictures of the panda eating their morning bamboo breakfast. 

At the zoo, it seems people found us as interesting as they did the animals.  Everywhere went, even more so than we had experienced before, people wanted to take our pictures and have us pose with them.  They had their small children wave and say ‘hello’.  I met one small elderly lady who just couldn’t take her eyes off me.  I was photographing some wild birds in the trees and at first, I thought her, and her young companion, were just curious what I was looking at.  I showed them my photos and they seemed impressed; all smiles and nodding and giving me a thumbs up.  But they kept watching me and eventually asked if I would pose with the older lady, which I gladly did.  She seemed happy for me to take her picture as well. 

For lunch we went to a local hot pot restaurant for ‘a special taste you can find only in Chongqing’.  It’s basically fondue, but with a weak broth with a few veggies floating around. The flavor comes from a dipping sauce that you mix to your liking. The table was full of different items to cook.  A really nice mom and daughter in our group had a hot pot restaurant near them, so I sat at their table, hoping they could identify what we were eating.  Sadly, nothing was to my liking. There was a wide variety of food, much of it mushrooms and fungus.  There were 3 types of thinly sliced meat, one of which was something called ‘black chicken’.  It was indeed black, but unlike everything else in the world, did not taste like chicken.  I later found out it was chicken soaked in pigs blood.  The problem with all the meat for me was that it was mushy when cooked.  There were strips of soy something, tofu, mushy dumplings and mushy noodles.  To be fair, I was one of the few who tried it but didn’t like it.  Several people in the group opted out and went to KFC, which was a choice we were given.  Wish I had gone with them.  

Day 15 - travel day.  I was meeting a new travel buddy in Tokyo on the 4th, but I had a few extra days.  I thought why not Hong Kong and booked my trip?  Great, but I got confused on the dates, thinking the trip ended 4 days earlier.  No time for Hong Kong, straight to Japan.  Luckily for me Air China lets you change your ticket.  Our guide helped me arrange everything and the airline sent him the confirmation text message and were supposed to send me a confirmation email.  The day before my flight I realized they hadn’t done so.  I had taken a photo of the confirmation text, but somehow deleted it.  I had nothing.  I called Air China that night, no problem, we see you on the flight, I’ll send another confirmation.  As we headed to the airport at 5am the next morning, still nothing.  When I got to the counter, she asked where are you going. I said Tokyo, so of course she sent me to my original destination of Washington DC.  (I told the tour company I wasn’t flying back to the US, but they still booked my return flight.)  I noticed about 2 seconds after my luggage disappeared.  45 min later they sorted it all out and checked my bag through to Tokyo but when I changed in Beijing, I had to get another boarding pass.  By now, I only had a few minutes until my plane boarded so I rushed off to go through security, only to be pulled from the line.  There was something wrong with my bag.  We had been told the night before to take all electronics and lithium batteries out of the checked bag and I thought I had done so.  Nope, my blue tooth speaker and diabetic tester were still in there.  Now I was down to abut 20 min and a long security line.  Luckily, gate agent who pulled me out of line, now sent me through the 1st class line, no waiting.  I made it to my gate with about 10 min to spare. 

We arrived in Beijing about an hour before my flight, but I spent that time trying to get a new boarding pass.  I was one of the last people on the flight, but luck finally seemed to go my way when I had an empty seat next to me.  Next stop, Japan.

I will add, I’ve been on several group tours now, and I have really enjoyed the people.  We had a large group, but I genuinely liked each and every person in our group.  There is some talk of doing another trip next year.  Hopefully most everyone can join, I’d love to travel someplace else with them.   We’ll do a FB page and see how it all works out. 

An un-edited photo.  This was the visibility for the entire 2 weeks. 

 

Link to Photos - https://photos.app.goo.gl/DHaL3aTyiN2YS4op7

 

 

 

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