PART ONE of Article Twenty-Three in a series of articles about the experiences of an Australian Conversational English Teacher in Rural China. Self published author of 'The King's Calendar:The Secret of Qumran', (A chronological study of the Bible, Josephus, and The Damascus Document of the Essenes), R.P. BenDedek is a pseudonym.

My Summer Trip to the Three Gorges Dam Project

A hazy day, but a photograph of the set of five locks through which one must proceed from YiChang to SanXia. The Water level goes from 45 meters to 145 meters. There is in fact a separate 6th loch.

In previous articles I have mentioned my horrible experiences teaching at the Teacher's Summer Camp held in my school, and of my trip to PuQi immediately thereafter.

Today I want to bring to you some photographs and comments about my Trip to the Three Gorges.

Background to the trip to YiChang.

Although I had wanted to visit PuQi to visit the Catholic Priests, and additionally, to take photos for the PuQi Adoptees about whom I had read on the internet, the final motivation for going came from my two friends Tobias and Chen Yang. Were it not for their insistence I may not have gone. When I first mentioned the possibility of going there, they jumped at the chance of seeing the place themselves, and so committed me to the trip.

These 4 photos are of the Ancient Wall and Gateway to the old city of JingZhou Hubei Province.

When Chen Yang became insistent on knowing exactly when I would go, I asked him what the rush was, and he informed me that he had an appointment to keep in YiChang.

On hearing this, I began to formulate a plan, which resulted in my request of him, to allow me to accompany him there, and to assist me in locating a hotel.

My purpose was that once I knew 'how' to get there and find someplace to stay, I could make my own arrangements to take a boat cruise. He agreed to do this.

While we were in PuQi however, his parents decided that they would pay for him to take a cruise with me.

And so it came about that the two of us made the trip. On August 16th, Chen Yang and I boarded a bus in Hong Hu, that would take us directly to YiChang, the gateway to the three gorges.

We left at about 8am, and the fare from memory, was about 75 yuan. The trip itself was to last about 5 hours.

Unfortunately it was a very crowded bus, and because of the general confusion that occurs on buses (and planes) in China, with everyone ignoring their ticketed seat, I got stuck in the far corner of the bus and had no freedom to take photos of the countryside.

I did however get to take a few photographs at JingZhou, by which time a number of passengers had left the bus.

The countryside along the expressway to JingZhou is quite different to that between Hong Hu and Wuhan, and it is a pity that I could not get any photos. Nevertheless, as you can see above, I did get some as we entered JingZhou itself. JingZhou (jing-joe) is a major city in Hubei, and is very modern, and the ancient walls in the photos, date back many centuries to when the city was quite small.

Three views from the international trade building in the main street of YiChang. Left - Middle - Right

After the 'convenience' break at JingZhou, we continued on for another 3 hours to YiChang, another modern and bustling city, although much smaller than JingZhou (or so it seemed).

It had been arranged for us to be greeted by an aunt who works at the local hospital, but as our timing was off, the meeting did not take place, and we had lunch at the bus station.

From there we found our way to the travel agency to pay for our tickets. We were going on a 'Chinese' tour.

This meant that we were taking a 'Chinese' tourist boat, not some lavish 'western' tour.

Instead of the 2000 yuan and more fee, we paid only a modest 500 yuan each, and despite all the regulations in China that are designed to keep track of the movements of foreigners, the agency neither recorded my name nor took any information from me whatsoever.

We left the agency with instructions to be back at 4:50pm, at which time we would be transported to the ship, for a 5:30 pm departure.

After a couple of hours wandering around taking photos, we arrived back at the agency, where we sat until about 5:45 pm before being taken to the ship, which was now scheduled to leave at 6pm. This was the beginning of a three day stint of schedules that never quite made it. From the very beginning, every scheduled event was delayed, including this rescheduled schedule.

Top shot is of the gangway leading to that yellow shed, on the other side of which was our cruise ship. Of course, there are 3 ships tied up together over there and we had to go through the first two to get to ours. Bottom shot is principally of a huge ship which was decked out like a temple. I have no idea what it really was.

Three scenes from the waterfront in YiChang. A Temple, a Church and a playground for children.

The 6pm departure, became 6:30pm, and that finally and actually became about 7:10pm.

We had set off almost 2 hours later than planned, and by this time it was getting reasonably dark. By the time we reached the first 'lock', where we had to park and wait, it was already totally dark, and there was nothing to see.

The first lock is between YiChang and the set of Five that appear in the First Photograph in this article.

The boat itself had every necessary amenity one could wish for.

We had a twin room (key to lock the door only an extra refundable 20 Yuan); a TV; a thermos of hot water for tea and coffee (provided that you knew you had to bring some - I did!); and a combined Chinese Toilet/Shower big enough to swing a cat, provided you were small enough to extend your arms without touching the walls.

The bathroom facilities came with three usual features for this type of cruise. There was Hot Water (provided you could work out which way to turn the handle - because both gave you cold water).

There was River water to bathe in (wait till you see the colour of it in the photographs to come); and then there was the 'au naturel' aroma of a Chinese squat toilet.

But hey, for 500 yuan - who's complaining? It wasn't a 'luxury' cruise by any means, but once you have lived in China for awhile, you learn that there are varying degrees of luxury.

My favourite attraction, of which I am certain few foreigners will ever have the opportunity to experience, is the walk down the hallway to the cabin.

The walls were wood paneled and the floor had a plush red carpet. But it was not these that I enjoyed. It was the actual walk, for you see, underneath the carpet was some type of metal flooring that was somewhat detached from whatever structure lay below it, and what is more, it was also buckled.

So as you walked down the hallway, the floor would buckle and pop under your feet. It was wonderful! Of course those who know me already know that I am a LauWantong (a childish man).

The hallway on our floor of the ship, and showing both ends of the ship. A middle section contained a lounge and a stairwell.

Top shot is of the meal room and the bottom shot is of a group of men who played cards and majiang throughout the entire trip. They are in the lounge room between the hallways.

Just some spectacular scenery.

There were three vantage points on the boat from which you could view the scenery.

The front, the back, and the top deck, for which there was a one off 'ticket' fee of 10 yuan per person, and all three points provided specific advantages that often saw me running from one to the other.

Of course, on that first evening, there was really nothing to see. It was already dark when we entered the first lock, and none of my photos turned out very good, and the process took forever.

Eventually, after a long day, I retired. Very early in the morning, while it was still quite dark, I awoke to discover that we were still in the lock, but upon investigation, realised that we were in the last of a total of six, and about to begin our journey up river.

It was a memorable trip that I would love to take again, only next time, over a longer period of time. It was quite tiring. Whilst at some times the sky was absolutely clear, for quite a bit of time it was hazy.

A night time view of the 'parking bay' at a lock, where one must wait until the previous ships have completed the process of descending (or ascending as the case might be).

A variety of craft that ply the river.

These photos were taken in the upper reaches of the Gorge where swimming amongst passing boats is common. Scary to watch though as some boats operators do like to play games.

This particular tour was booked as a three day river cruise, and it did in fact last over a three day period.

It commenced as I have said, in the evening of the first day, continued throughout the second, and brought us safely back to YiChang in the late afternoon of the third day.

For most of the second day, we traveled through muddy waters, as can be seen in the left frames of the photo above.

The river is incredibly muddy and filled with floating rubbish.

Throughout the tour one could observe people in little 'junks' collecting 'junk' from the river.

It is not until you arrive at the upper reaches of the river that the water changes colour.

The whole trip actually requires one to take three different boats.

First there is the regular cruise ship which takes you to WuShan.

From there you take a smaller boat, until you reach the upper reaches of the river where you must disembark and transfer to these little wooden 'traditional' type boats.

The lower reaches of the river is quite wide, but as you proceed into the mountains, it gets very narrow.

Whilst in this article I have provided photographs of interesting sights along the way, at KingsCalendar.com in the "Stories From China" articles section, I have provided a photographic file containing pictures of the RIVER aspect of the trip.

Now naturally when one is on a scenic tour, one does not wish to miss anything, and so it was on this first full day of the tour, that from the time I awoke before dawn, until we returned from the trip to the WuHou (woohoo) temple, I got no sleep, and was therefore quite exhausted.

A view of a lock, and a bridge linking two mountains. Most of these bridges are new, and connect the mountains and their newly created roadways.

Mother and Daughter who have lived in Germany for over 10 years.

Being a totally 'Chinese' tour, none of the staff spoke English and so it was left to Chen Yang to discover everything that we needed to know.

This was made easier by the fact that the travel agency actually provided a 'tour guide', who, while wonderful and helpful, spent most of her time with a family group that had moved to Germany about twelve years ago.

Throughout the trip, they did not let on that any of them could speak English. It was only a few hours before we arrived back in YiChang that the daughter, whose name I have forgotten, introduced herself to Chen Yang and asked if she could talk with me.

Knowing nothing about her at all, I just assumed that she was a typical Chinese English student and that like several others aboard, wanted to speak to me so that she could impress her parents, but would not actually have any communicative ability.

When I was introduced to her, I did my standard 'H-e-l-l-o! How - are - you? She gave me a funny look and announced in perfect English "I can speak English you know!" And blow me down, she jolly well could at that.

She had moved to Germany at about the age of Three years, and had to learn German from scratch. At Ten years of age, she was required to study English at school, and currently she was fifteen years old.

I mention this because once I loosened up and began to speak with her in a normal way and at normal speed, poor Chen Yang, who has studied English for 7 years already, and who had not spoken English till about 6 weeks earlier, got left behind in the conversation.

"How is it possible" he asked me privately, "that she can speak such fluent English, so fast, and using such big words?" 'Simple!' I replied, 'Mainland China is the only country in the world where students study foreign languages without ever being made to actually SPEAK THEM!'

Some of my admirers. The three 'twins' could actually speak a good deal of English

The young lady in the top photo to the right came from Wuhan and from memory was in Grade 3 in Junior Middle School.

Top photo is of a Junior Middle School student from Wuhan whose foreign teacher only sings songs and plays games, and bottom, we have a brilliant salesman who tried to sell me a coke for 5 RMB but finally chased after me and gave it to me for only 1 RMB higher than the right price. Very kind of him indeed!

She did a wonderful job of trying to speak to me, although she started out just hanging around.

Finally I asked her in Chinese if she wanted to speak to me in English.

She is memorable because of something she said; "our foreign teacher never talks with us. He just sings songs and plays games, but we never get a chance to talk!"

That says it all. And I might add, you can't blame the foreigner for that, for that is what most are instructed to do!

Now as I have said previously, every schedule that we were provided throughout the trip got changed. Originally we were supposed to go to breakfast at some time that I can't recall now, but ended up with us hanging around in our cabins waiting for the tour guide to come and get us.

I should point out here that while all foreigners attract attention in China, to actually SEE ONE on a 'common' Chinese person's tour was somewhat of a bewilderment to most people.

We ate all our meals in the dining room, and these were an additional, but average price. Lunch and Dinner were the best meals of the day, because we could order just as in a restaurant and so we had some control over what we ate.

Apart from its spiciness, Chao Rou is the best meal for a foreigner, because the meat is actually off the bone. Most meat dishes are served on the bone, which in fact means, that both the meat and the bones are hacked up with a clever, and believe me, it is nothing like eating a nice leg of chicken or a lamb chop.

I can't remember what time we arrived in WuShan, but it had to be after lunch, because we certainly did not have a chance to eat before we set out for the upper gorge.

The Town itself is ultramodern in appearance, and set into the side of a mountain. It consists of rows upon rows of apartment buildings, and is somewhat reminiscent of Rome, or even of Paris as one might see view it from the Eiffel tower.

The waterfront however consisted of long lines of stalls from which one could purchase everything from arts and artifacts to food and drink. It was a regular bazaar.

In WuShan we had to disembark, walk down passed the stalls and their pleading vendors, and board a series of smaller craft.

As we walked the planks toward shore, I felt someone's hand on my back pocket. Always cautious, I was walking with my hands in my pockets, specifically to keep the cloth on the seat of my pants tight. I tightened my grip. When this did not seem to discourage the brazen (and inept) thief, I quickly sidestepped to the left, and left him both surprised and embarrassed. He dropped his head so I could not see his face, and quickly retracted the jacket that had covered his hand to conceal his actions. He disappeared quickly.

We proceeded immediately to the smaller vessel, the price of which was included in our original ticket. Straight away set off for the upper reaches of the river, in a convoy of about six craft each holding perhaps forty people. Later we transferred to the smaller craft.

In this next photograph, you can see the two different types of craft. The top photo is of the boat that took us to the upper reaches, and the bottom picture is of the traditional craft that took us up the shallower waters into the gorge.

At WuShan one must leave the cruise ships and change to the small craft to view the middle section of the gorge, and later still one must change to the wooden craft.

In this photo to the left, in the bottom frame, one can see a cave with something in it.

Almost centre of the top photo there is a bare patch of rock on the cliff face. It holds a coffin of some dead king or somebody. I was told that this coffin has been there for centuries.

Now as I don't understand Chinese, and Chen Yang's explanation left a lot to be desired, all I can tell you is that it is an open coffin of some king that lived a thousand years ago.

Apparently they use to 'dry out' the corpses and leave them in the cliffs. The top photo shows where it is located in the mountain top.

Of course, before the dam caused the water level to rise, this area was well out of reach, more so than it is now.

From WuShan one travels up river through much smaller settlements than were visible on the way to WuShan, and the scenery is spectacular.

The mountain slopes are covered with farms and crops, and villages of varying sizes and types, ranging from modern construction and styles, to the simpler wood or brick houses.

There are numerous settlements located right on the river banks, and it is a wonderful sight to see the villagers swimming, working, cooking, or whatever, right up there by the water level.

In the Third photo set at the beginning of this article, in the top frame, one can see children swimming in the middle of the river. It looks like a wonderful scene, but if you look to the last photo, you might realise that this is actually a busy river, and sometimes it was absolutely scary to watch kids out there swimming, and wondering if the boat captains were aware of them and could manouvre around them. And I will point out that it was not just the kids one had to look out for, for there were also the smaller local boats plying the river. The big surprise is the number of speed boats that ply the river as well, especially the super fast 'police boats'.

In this next photo taken before we arrived at the upper reaches where we transferred to the traditional style of wooden boat, you can see that we were fortunate enough to pass by some traditional mountain people going about their business.

Peasant life in the upper reaches of the gorge. The area in the top photo can only be reached by wooden boats. The bottom area cannot be reached by cruise ships.

It was not too many years ago that these people lived very high up in the mountains, and transport was negligible. While now they have greater access to the river, roads and bridges, the cost is that they must now put up with the tourists. The other cost of course is that those at lower levels had to lose their homes and history, to resettle elsewhere.

One finds it difficult to imagine what life must have been like for those people who originally lived in these mountains. It must have been quite a solitary existence, with little contact with the outside world.

One of the things that was obvious, is that there must have been quite a few who lived in Caves, and in many places one could see the upper portions of cave entrances, and even remnants of walls set at the front.

Three scenes from the upper reaches of the river. First the pontoon at which we transferred over into the little wooden boats; then the worker on the boat that took us up the second course of the river, and below, a big cave that appears currently occupied.

Being Summer, there were not too many occasions along this portion of the trip, that the canopy of the boat was pulled back to allow for a good view.

Many like myself, braved the sun to sit up front on the deck, and I spent a good deal of time talking to an old man who was a crew member.

It was funny to watch him on the return trip lean over the edge, get a bucket of water, and proceed to do his washing on the deck.

I thrilled a few of the young folk by deigning to give them some attention so that they could practice their "Hellno's and vhere do you come flom's", although I did have a conversation with a couple who spoke quite well, including an old man from Taiwan.

A few times along the way we were shunted off the bow because it is apparently illegal for us to be there (safety regulations), but that usually occurred as we approached settlements or some ship approaching from the other direction gave a signal to our captain.

Eventually we docked at a portable landing at a fork in the river, and were rushed (not even time for a cigarette or to buy a coke from the vendors), into the traditional craft, and sent merrily on our way up the last leg of the river.

The last leg of the voyage was the most serene and beautiful part of the trip. There were two staff on board, and while one guided the craft along (powered by a little motor), the other spent some time serenading us with local mountain songs in an endeavour to have us spend spend spend.

At various points along the way there were posted loud speakers in the mountains broadcasting more songs, and additionally we encountered a another boat cum platform from which even more locals serenaded us.

Between the songs, the steep mountain sides, the water and the rock formations it was a beautiful trip which ended far too quickly.

Taken in the upper reaches of the gorge, entertainment is laid on for the visitors. Photo Top is of singers singing local songs.

There was one moment of excitement when someone spotted a monkey. The mountains are apparently famous for them, but unfortunately it is not often that ones gets the chance to spot one. I for one missed it, and although later on the way back to WuShan I did manage to see two, I only managed to get a photograph of the back of someone's head.

That trip back to WuShan was quite fast compared to the trip up river, for three reasons. Firstly, having already traveled this portion there was no point in taking things slowly; Secondly, there was another scheduled tour to take (not that we were aware of it); Thirdly, all the boat captains played games with the others. They raced, played dodgems, and cut corners (bends in the river) as they jockeyed for the lead position.

While it was a tremendous amount of fun, it did occasionally get a little scary with all those other little craft in the water, and let's not forget about the local kids.

At one point I saw two craft separate to travel either side of a group of swimming kids.

This competition between craft created quite a site both for we passengers and those watching from the shore, not to mention the huge waves that it created.

By the time we arrived back at WuShan, it was dusk. After being given a very brief time in which to grab a bite to eat, we set off once again for another tour.  (Story continues in Part 2 tomorrow.)

R.P.Bendedek

Email: rpbendedek@hotmail.com

R.P.BenDedek is the pseudonym of the Author of 'The King's Calendar: The Secret of Qumran' (www.kingscalendar.com), and he is a guest columnist at Magic City Morning Star News. An Australian, he currently teaches Conversational English in China. Other Stories

"The King's Calendar" is a chronological study of the historical books of the Bible (Kings and Chronicles), Josephus, Seder Olam Rabbah, and the Damascus Document of The Dead Sea Scrolls.