Saturday, June 30, 2012
Pearl Tower Views
The top floor has a plexiglass floor area so you can look through the floor at the city below though between clearing fog and dingy plexiglass, the pics were not clear until we went to a lower level.
Pearl Tower in Shanghai
We went up into the tower and by the time we went back down much of the fog was clearing. The tower is 1,535 ft tall with that top sphere (160 ft across) at the 1,150 ft level and the rest was the antenna spire. There's a rotating restaurant in that top sphere as well. The scale of the structure can't be appreciated in the pic but it is just slightly shorter than the World Trade Centers were.
Shanghai
It rains alot in Shanghai and this is the rainy season. This means fog is a daily thing especially in the AM. The guide said it rains 100 days a year here. It rained all two days we were there as well. It is listed as the most populous city in the world (twice that of New York). The top of the famous Pearl Tower can not be seen when we first arrived. This was true of many of the skyscrapers there.
On to Shanghai
After leaving the ship at Yichang, we headed for the Yichang Airport and on to Shanghai. The Shanghai airport is physically the largest airport I have personally been in though it is only the 20th busiest in the world (It is the third busiest in tonnage moved though). This was the smaller domestic terminal.
Three Gorges Dam
This is a file photo of the dam. The dam was controversial for many reasons including causing elevated river levels in ancient sites and it resulted in the extinction of the Yangtze River Dolphin found only in this river. You got to hand it to the Chinese... save a dolphin or improve the lives of 460 million people within the river basin. In the US such a project would have been halted until a 10 year study was done on the impact of the dolphin habitat. They spent 8 billion dollars (US$) relocating people and shoring up cities along the river that were affected by the impact of the dam.
Three Gorges Dam
The dam just went on and on. It was huge..1.4 miles across. It is the largest Hydroelectric dam in the world. The water level is low currently in the upstream Yangtze but will rise 90-100 ft in the next few months as usual. One might think that the dam was built for the hydroelectric energy but that wasn't the reason. This 14 year project was mainly done to create a reservoir to contain the massive rising flood waters of the Yangtze which flooded and killed people every 10 years for two millennia.
Yichang
On the other side of the dam is the small city of Yichang (pronounced E Chung) population 4.1 million... yes..China considers this a small city. The US has only two cities with population greater than 4 million..China has many. We got off at Yichang to visit the Three Gorges Dam.
Three Gorges Dam Locks
Near the end of our Yangtze River Cruise, we had to go through the locks at the Three Gorges Dam during the night. There were five locks that gradually lowered us 250 ft to the Yangtze River below. Each lock was 900 ft long and 90 ft wide so 3-5 ships could be lowered at a time.
Friday, June 29, 2012
Hanging Coffin
This is what is known as a hanging coffin. For over 2,000 years this type of burial was practiced and is found in 2-3 other countries. They would carve a coffin usually out of a single piece of wood and place their loved one in it. They would coat the coffin with some kind of weather proof liquid and then would place the coffin on suspended boards placed in chisled holes on the sheer cliff walls. It is believed that it was done to make it easier for them to go to heaven since they would be closer. Some believe that it was to keep "beasts" from feeding on their body. To this day, it is not really known why they did it or how they did it. This is a guarded state protected site and is estimated to be about 700 years old. It has not been practiced for over 100 years... what a culture!!
An Ancient artifact
At first glance this appears as just another sheer wall of a mountainous river edge but at the very center of the picture within the widened crevice there is an amazing ancient artifact. The next pic blows up this small area.
A Peapod Boat
After the first 1/4 mile, the boat was propelled by wooden oars by locals who have done this for generations. The youngest of our oarsmen was 70.
Peapod Boats
The peapod boats are hand made wooden boats made by the locals to get up and down the smaller river. As it has been done for over a thousand years, the first quarter mile of the trip is accomplished by locals literally pulling the boat by a long rope from shore while another uses a bamboo stick to keep us off the bank.
Caves Dwellers
As recently as 100 years ago, "mountain people" lived in caves along the
river. Increasing floods drove them inland but this wall remains.
river. Increasing floods drove them inland but this wall remains.
Exploring a tributary
We stopped at a small city on the river and boarded a smaller boat to travel up one of the tributaries of the Yangtze River
Narrow areas of the Gorge
Some narrow areas for a ship this big to navigate... sure glad this captain has been doing it for 28 years!!
First of Three Gorges
Approaching the first of the "Three Gorges". This one is especially difficult to navigate because it is the narrowest and turns the most. It has special meaning to the Chinese and considered the most beautiful which is why an image of it is on their $10 bill. My pic doesn't do it justice. Unfortunately their is a lot of fog in central China this time of year having an adverse effect on many of my landscape pics.
Riverside
Another riverside community. Note the height of that dock used when the river is at its highest (compare with the small ships just below). I just found it amazing how much one river could rise every year and how the riverside inhabitants had to deal with it.
Can't find diet Mountain Dew
Though not impossible, finding diet soda in China is very difficult. Pepsi and Sprite are everywhere. The only diet soda I have found in the many communities we have been in thus far is Coke Zero and a rare Diet Coke... forget about my Diet Mountain Dew.
Dining on board
The dining area was huge and well organized. All three meals daily were buffets of both Chinese food as well as western dishes.
Riverside Community
Many small communities along the river. Note how far off the river's edge they need to be.
A Calmer River
The river widens significantly and the waters slowed for a peaceful cruise further downstream (I earlier said upstream but we were going downstream).
Champagne in the Diamond Club
The first evening the Captain of the ship, the second officer, and the hotel manager personally greeted every passenger with his interpreter during a champagne get together. He has been navigating the Yangtze River for 28 years and his father did 35 years before him.
Our boat awaiting our return
The length of this ramp demonstrates how much this mighty river rises. The guide said it covers the ramp up to where I am standing for this pic. In some areas, the river will triple in width as a result of the river rising. Needless to say, all riverside communities are way up from the current shoreline.
Boat Dwellers
Taken from that same location as the bridge, this shows how some live on the river on their boats. This was the case all along the river in the slower moving areas of the river.
Bridge to the Pagoda
This is a foot bridge built to get to the Pagoda. It shook back and forth as we crossed it. When the river is low like it is now, it is passable by land but in a couple months from now that area will be covered by 40 feet of water.
Ancient Pagoda
This Pagoda was built 1600 years ago on a mountainside along the Yangtze. They built a 175 foot high wall around it to protect it from the Yangtze River.
First Day Docking
Everyday we stopped at some small community to see local interesting and ancient sites. This is the boat docked at a small town on the river. There was no shortage of locals trying to sell you cheap looking trinkets, jewelry etc but the locals were nice, pleasant, clean and respectful for the most part.
The Great Yangtze River
The Yangtze River is important to China for their history, culture, and economy. It starts at the Tibet plateau and falls 16,000 feet (over 3 miles) by the time it gets to Chongquin which explains the volume displayed in the pics at Chongquin. Because it drags so much silt with it, the river beds downstream are slowly rising and major floods have occurred on average every 10 years for the past 2000 years. This problem was finally addressed with the building of the huge Three Gorges Dam completed in 2006. Still the river will rise during the rainy season in some locations as much as 90 feet which is better than the 270 foot rise in some placeds they were getting every 10 years or so.
Leaving Chongquin
The cruise departed Chongquin that evening about 10 pm though we boarded about 5pm. The city at night was quite colorful.
The Yangtze River Cruise
The cruise is an interesting part of our tour. The internet was available but very weak and it came and went as we wound through gorges and countrysides so I could not post during those three days. The cruise boat was beautiful inside and very service oriented. It held about 225 people. The plan was to cruise upstream on the Yangtze River (the T is silent) about 410 miles passing several small communities, a few ancient sites, three locally famous gorges and ending at the city of Yichang (E Chung) after passing through the recently completed locks at the Three Gorges Dam. The next several posts are from the cruise.
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