School is now out for summer. Have fun.

written by  akstoltzy on June 9, 2010 from Guilin, China
from the travel blog: China
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The following picture is of a new community that the government needed to provide for those affected by the construction of the dam:

During the construction of the dam, more than one million people were displaced from their homes. The reason: they are all under water now. The construction of the dam caused the Yangtze to rise more than 70 meters from it's previous height. For all the metrically-impaired out there including my life-time membership, that's about 230 feet. We passed several of these communities as we continued down stream.

This next picture shows us entering the narrower portion of the gorge:

We had to transfer to a smaller boat due to the depth of this river decreasing the further we went up river. This is not part of the Three Gorges Dam itself. This is a tributary of the Yangtze River but whose water level also rose.

As you can see, the fog is not conducive to photography.

This next picture shows a little bit more visually the river's depth change:

This body of land is now an island. Previous to the dam being built, it was part of the mainland (a peninsula actually). Now, you can only access this by boat.

The next two pictures just prove that Eric and I were here:

Here are a few pictures from the front of the ship:

Again, detail is difficult because of the type of camera I have and the fog. The peaks of these mountains range from 1000-2000 feet in height.

The tributary/river we are entering actually has a name but I can't say or spell it so you'll just have to take my word for it.

We passed this lady who is either coming or going:

Here is Grand View Peak (the little point in the top left of the picture):

This is the highest peak in the gorge at a little over 1000 meters (3900 ft):

If you look at the picture, you can see high-water marks on the walls of the gorge. This happens every summer. In the winter, the water is allowed to rise to the top water-mark. In the Spring/Summer, the water is lowered to allow flood waters a place to go rather than all over the land. The water-level depth that you can see from level to high-water mark is about 50 meters (more than 150 ft).

This cave is pretty cool (though the photography is not):

It's 100 meters high and about 30 meters wide. It's called Swallow Cave because that's where swallows nest. It is considered bad luck in this area of China to disturb the nests for eggs and so any swallows that nest here are safe from being the main ingredient in soup.

The next few pictures show traditional Chinese culture in these shallow areas of the river(s). We transferred from our smaller boat to these traditional wooden boats that have been used for over 2000 years:

Only 17 or so people can get on one of these boats:

Here is our guide who speaks Chinese first and then gives us two Americans the short version:

They are rowed/paddled by up to six men and a captain. We were rowed about ¾ of a mile up the river. The depth of the river continuously became more shallow.

When we arrived at a point where it was too shallow to paddle, the men hopped out of the boat, grabbed lengths of 'rope' made from bamboo, and pulled us up the river:

That is how it has been done for thousands of years in this area of China!

In this next picture, the man is 75 years old and has been doing this his whole life:

This guy is the only chubby guy among the men.

Don't know why I took this picture:

It's China's flag and hopefully I'll learn soon what the four smaller stars around the big star represent.

As we headed back to our ship, we passed the city of Badong (bow dong):

That's what they told us. There must be another Golden Gate Bridge because I do not see much of a resemblance.

We made it back to the ship and immediately set sail for the Three Gorges Dam. This picture is of our main guide Stephen:

The show in the bar/ballroom that night consisted of more traditional Chinese dancing as well as crowd participation. The little girl in this picture:

Eric decided to go up on stage and show his coordination and MJ moves. Yes, MJ is dead and Eric proved that rather well! The staff had 6-foot long bamboo poles that they would rhythmically slap together or slap on the ground. Eric never quite got it and almost broke his ankles when he should have been in the air (when the poles slapped together) instead of on the ground. Here is a sequence of pictures:
Getting Directions:

Trying with a helper:

On his own:

I was called up to play musical chairs with three other guests. The idea was to 'dance' (I also proved the MJ is dead) around a group of chairs until Stephan stopped the music and announced something that we had to get from the audience. I did well the first round, ripping a shoe off an elderly gentleman. However, the second round required a sock. I went back to the traumatized man whose shoe I had just stolen only to find out he wasn't wearing socks. I then jumped over he and his wife and started ripping off the sock of a Japanese man. I almost took his lower leg with me but when I turned around and saw that the other two had already found their magic sock, I left his leg alone. I apologized to the man as a tourniquet was applied to slow the bleeding. I won a map of the Three Gorges Dam so all in all it was quite fun! I may need a little forgiveness, too.

We hit the Three Gorges Dam at about midnight. The pictures all turned out black due to the rain, fog, and lack of a manly flash on my camera. What I can tell you is that it is ENORMOUS. The Grand Coulee Dam in the US is pretty big, putting out about 800 K-Watts of power through it's four or five turbines. This dam? 22 turbines and 18,000 K-watts of power. I have no idea what I just typed because I don't know anything about electricity. What I do know is that the Grand Coulee Dam is big. This dam is like comparing an elephant and a gerbil. Here is proof that I was there:

Here are pictures from Monday morning right before the cruise ended:

I only wish that the pictures would have been more clear. I learned that if we took the cruise from Yi Chang to Chongqing (the opposite run), we would have gone through the five locks during the daytime. Oh well, maybe next time. This was the highlight so far of the trip and yet I can't show you visually how cool it was. In any case, I highly recommend the cruise if ever coming here. It is worth the money!

After the cruise, we boarded a bus for a 5-hour ride to a hostel in Wuhan (woo h on). We stayed overnight and then caught a train to Guilin. Guess what the metal buckets are for on the floor:

written by  akstoltzy on June 7, 2010 from Yichang, China
from the travel blog: China
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And please everyone, do not play your trumpet here in the park:

They also have statues all around that are related to Christianity and the ten commandments. Thou shalt not kill, covet thy neighbors wife, and so on. Here is one that relates to what happens if you do not listen to your parents:

People are encouraged to 'spank' the statue.

My batteries in the camera were dying so I could not take pictures of all the statues.

This picture show a hotel they are building that is roughly one mile away:

It's not real clear because I had to max out the zoom but you can see that there will be a Buddha's face on the front of it. Reminds me a bit of Mt. Rushmore and the ongoing construction in South Dakota of the Crazy Horse monument being carved out of the side of a hill.

We spent about three hours on this excursion. I had many more pictures but I couldn't remember what they were pictures of. I suppose I could have just put them up but without an explanation of each, it would have been like going on an art gallery excursion without an interpreter. OH WAIT! That's exactly what we were doing!

Tonight, we went to the bar/ballroom for a little show and some games. The staff did some dancing:

Since Eric and I were the only two westerners on board, we were picked out of the crowd to participate in all of the fun and games. No matter how hard we try, we stick out a little bit like albino pandas without round eyes. In any case, Eric tried to shake his booty with a box tied to his hind end. Inside the box were ping pong balls. There was a little hole on the bottom of the box for the ping pong balls to fall through into a basket. It was hilarious! Eric did poorly, ending up 3rd and winning a map of the Yangtze River. Here are a few shots:

I went up to play a version of a game on The Price Is Right. There were cards spread in rows on a board. I had to pick 4 cards and if I picked an ace of any suit, I would win a t-shirt. Well, the t-shirt is in my bag. I also won three beers to go with it and so I made three new friends in the crowd!

The night ended at about 11:30. We have to be up early tomorrow because we are approaching the gorges and we're going to go on another excursion where we will have to transfer two times to smaller and smaller boats. Tomorrow night we see the Three Gorges Dam. Hopefully it is lit up since it will be dark.

written by  akstoltzy on June 5, 2010 from Yichang, China
from the travel blog: China
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I'll be journaling throughout the cruise. If they don't have internet, the first blog will be more of a journal than a blog. However, I think that's probably equivalent to the different ways you can say tomato. No matter how you say it, it's still a tomato.

I almost forgot to mention that I have been looking for postcards everywhere we walk (believe me, that's a lot of looking with all the walking we have been doing). I have not been able to find ONE store that sells any. I don't get it. That would be a cash-cow for these guys. I'm still looking and so for those I promised a postcard to, please be patient.

Until Next Time....

written by  akstoltzy on June 4, 2010 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: China
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Here is what happens when you outlive your cage-life:

Does anybody need a leg? How about a neck? Got those? Ok then, have a few feet then:

Now this last one is even a bit much for me. I wonder if you serve this with mustard or steak sauce?

We settled on yogurt, bananas, and noodles. Vegan sounded better last night.

written by  akstoltzy on June 3, 2010 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: China
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We walked a little while longer and found a restaurant. It was down a whole bunch of stairs. Since the escalator wasn't working, we had our doubts. When we get to the basement, six or seven people stand up, start laughing at us, and guide us into the restaurant. There was not a single person eating in this fairly large restaurant. It reminded us of the ballroom in The Shining. Great food that filled me up silly. Total cost, $4.50.

Eric and I will not be going to Tibet or Mongolia. There is too much to see in both places and so those two should be combined together for one nice vacation. We leave Friday for a 4D/3N cruise on the Yangzte to see some sites as well as the largest dam in the world, the environmentally wrecking Three Gorges Dam. From there, we will bus and train it to Guilin for a few days. Then we will train it up to Xian for another few days to see the terra cotta statues and other historical things associated with the city. From there we will head to Beijing for the rest of the vacation.

Will be in touch....

written by  akstoltzy on June 2, 2010 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: China
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Anyway, the carvings are incredible! The second best tour to date so far! Until we have 3-D cameras, it will always be difficult to capture in a picture what you are truly seeing. These carvings go back over 800 years! I like to take pictures of description stones to help remind me of what it is I am seeing since I suffer from permanent CRS (can't remember s*it). So, here is the first description stone that tells about the entire area:

The carvings were made under the supervision of a monk by the name of Zhao Zhifeng. He probably looked better in person:

These carvings have a mixture of Buddhism, Confucianism, and some theories of Taoism (Greg and Teresa: You'll Love These!).

Here is the first one as you walk into the site:

I don't have descriptions for all of them but I will post them below as they come up on my queue. As a history freak, looking at these articulate and precise carvings made more than 400 years before America was discovered by foreigners is particulary interesting. The preservation is also amazing. There are a few missing faces, toes, or other parts, but most are in excellent condition. These are carved right out of the sides of hills! They obviously had an idea about preservation because each is either inside a cave or has an outcrop above that extends past the carvings themselves in order to prevent rain and drainage from higher elevations from creating erosion and damage. You really have to see this to believe it. Pay attention to the dimensions of the statues (on the description stones). This will also help to give you an idea of their enormity.

In Alaska Eskimo/Indian Culture, the 'Circle of Life' is a dominant theme. For those who haven't come across this cultural value, it basically states that everything on earth is intertwined not only from people-people, but also between the earth, animals, and spiritual entities/beliefs. This has been a consistent theme in almost all cultures from way back when to the present. It is obviously true in Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism as well. Here are the photos of this important but seemingly presently overlooked way of life:

Their are six basic principles of this theory starting with being reincarnated/born in the top wedge (if a clock, think 11:00 - 1:00) to leaving earthly life in the last wedge (9:00-11:00).

The next photos talk/show three people practicing Buddhism:

This is a neat one:

Here are a few more:

Can't remember the story on this one but their are nine dragons which represent power and good fortune:

Here is one to show filial piety:

And the last of them:

Here's one of me Eric took. Yes, the spot on the bridge is me:

So, we finish the tour and then head back to the right to get to Chongqing (shung sheeng). I think I have mentioned the driving here in a previous blog. Let's just say that if any of us drove as they do here, we would have enough points in a day against our driver's license to have it suspended for years. On our return, we hit rush hour. That's a misnomer because the entire day is nothing but a rush-minute. So, we get about half way up a clover-leaf exit ramp so we can join the main expressway. About half way up is when you can see what the traffic is like on the merging expressway. In this case, our driver decided we were not going to join that expressway. So, he decides to stop and proceed in reverse back down the UP ramp so as to take the previous exit. Many others decided to do the same thing as you can see by these pictures I took:

More people getting the same idea:

We were fortunate to meet a young lady and her mom who both live in a Detroit suburb. They are both Chinese. The daughter was born here but moved with her family when she was six (she is 22 now). They helped to explain any important stuff the guides were saying. However, they didn't start helping us until after Eric and I walked through a door (I now call it the No-No Door). Apparently, the guide just finished saying that we should all go through a particular door on the right. Instead, because we were hanging back looking at the architecture because we had no clue what they were saying (we declined the heavy cost of having an English interpreter), we decided to go through the door on the left. That would be the No-No Door. Everyone started laughing, pointing at us, and saying something. Because we entered through that door, in two years Eric and I will begin studying in China to become monks. I can't wait. That's the pitfalls of going without an interpreter.

Towards the end of the tour, we ended up inside a room where there was a wise monk speaking in Chinese. Again Eric and I were in the back by ourselves sitting on bench seats. As he was obviously expousing the Buddhist religion and then half-bowing, both Eric and I half-bowed as well out of respect. In the next few minutes, the monk had a group of people (6 or so) stand and dismissed them through the same door we came through on entering. Next, he had a group of 2-3 stand. He said something important I guess because after he gave them something, he dismissed them through a side door. The first group received nothing from this monk. He did this with one other group and they too went through the door on the left. At this point, Eric and look at each other and wonder where he is going to send us. Will we be stoned to death? Will we be taken directly to monastery school? Maybe he'll just ignore us and he will leave and Eric and I will make a beeline back to the van. So here we are, the last two people with the monk and we have no idea what the heck he's saying. He motions for us to stand and come up to his alter (oh shit.....), begins saying something more (double shit......) and then hands us a medallion in a red case and then points to the entrance we came through and dismissed us. When we walked back out, we were guided outside and to the van. We made it without crushed skulls, burned body limbs, and all of the parts we walked in with were still with us! YES!!!! Oh wait, shhhhh. I keep forgetting to keep my comments to myself for fear of arrest.

As it turns out, the first group that was dismissed were non-believers of Buddhism, Confucianism, and/or Taoism. No 'good left door' for them to exit through. The other groups were believers and were allowed to exit through the 'good left door'. Eric and I have a chance one day to walk through the left door but we must commit to becomming believers. I showed the medalions to the desk staff here as well as 'The Believers' on the bus and they were surprised we received anything. Here is a picture of the front of the medallion:

Here is the back:

I now expect that you would like a translation? Ohhhhh, you make me laugh! I have no idea what it says. I did ask the girl working downstairs but she couldn't find the English words to interpret. She used a few though, Good Fortune, Peace, and Prosperity. The medallion itself is maybe 2" high and 1" wide. It was hard to get a good picture so I hope you can make out a little of it. The shiny-ness of it makes it hard to photograph as well.

Eric and I are going to try and go to see the pandas tomorrow. Apparently, the prima donna bears feel it is too chilly out for them to come out of their dwelling. Maybe it will be warmer tomorrow.

Eric and I are also seriously considering a quick (3-4 days) trip to Tibet, return to Chongqing and take a river cruise for another 3-4 days, take the train to Guilin then on to Xian to see the terra cotta statues and all the history there and then on to Beijing so Eric can get to see the Great Staircase (Wall), Tian'amen Square, and whatever else floats his boat. I'll know more later tonight which will be when you are waking up.

I hope you enjoyed this blog. This was a great tour/trip. Also, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE sign your first and last name to the blog. I think it's getting hacked because there are some comments from I don't know who. I've blocked two that have tried to leave comments but their are 3 others I don't know about for sure. I have figured out Doug's (thanks for the nice comments!) but their are others I am not sure about. I don't have anyone I know that would sign their name as 'Sis'. Yes, I have two sisters but we never spent the end of the night turning lights off as we said good-night to everyone. No, we were definitely not the Waltons. The other two I don't know about so please leave a name that I can identify easily. Thanks!

written by  akstoltzy on June 1, 2010 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: China
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It took almost an hour to get there. So, when we pull up, there are three exits, International, A, and B. I say to him 'A'. Should have said 'B'. Not a big deal because the walk wasn't so long to the B terminal. I go to the check-in counter and hand over my passport with a smile and say, 'Ni Hao' (nee how) which means hello. Once he punches some keys on the computer I see my bag tag coming out and know I am home free and that I have been successful with this part of the trip. So I say to myself but apparently out loud, 'YES'! The guy looks at me and I say again,' YES! I made it this far!' He looks at me funny. He gets up from behind his desk and walks away. I'm thinking maybe he's going to get a tray for my backpack that every airport uses that I have gone to. The straps on my bag are numerous and so they always put the pack in a tray so the straps don't get tangled or stuck in the luggage escalator thingy. So I wait a few minutes and I see him return with a policeman. I'm thinking really scary things now (waterboarding, jumper cables to all parts of my body, dirt floor jail cell, rice and water, CNN, etc). The policeman asks me in very good English, “Is there a problem here. This gentleman says you are saying things that has him concerned'. I'm thinking this is the same guy that can't understand me and now he is concerned? So I tell the policeman about my journey for the day and the problems I had communicating the past few days and say that I am just relieved that things turned out ok today. He starts laughing while Mr. Ticket Counter Man keeps looking from me to the policeman wondering why we are the only two people laughing in the whole terminal. Policeman says something to Mr Ticket Counter Man and now everyone is laughing!

Here's my taxi:

Just like the train station, they have one 'Monster' board with all the flight information like departure and gate numbers. Here is Shenzhen's board:

The plane ride was nice and I arrived 2 hours later in Chongqing. Now the next adventure begins. I get outside and jump into a taxi. To my absolute surprise (not), the guy doesn't understand a lick of English. So, I show him the directions to the hostel and he obviously has no idea where to go. He knows the district it is in (kind of like in Chicago where you have Lincoln Park, Wrigley-ville, Gold Coast etc) but anything specific is out of the question. So in about 40 minutes, we arrive in the district. I ask to use his mobile phone because I have the number and I know they speak english at the hostel. So after another, 'Ni Hao', I ask the lady if she can explain to the driver how to get to the hostel. I think she does this based on the guy and his repeated head nods. Nope. We end up in an alleyway and he starts asking the locals where the place is. Finally, he calls the hostel back and they say to leave me there and they will be over in a minute to pick me up. So I'm standing there for 20 minutes and the locals come up and look at my map and one person gestures to go one way, another grabs his arm and throws it down and I think is saying, 'No No No, you go this way' and while I watch these people arguing with each other on where I should go, I start laughing. You know the kind, the one where you're in church or at a funeral and all of a sudden you can't stop type of laughing. They all get quiet and look at me and I'm trying to pull out my translation book so I can tell them that I am not laughing at them but with them. Thank God the girl from the hostel arrives just then. Even though I was blending in well (yeah, right) she was able to figure out right away that it was me she was looking for. Smart girl. We walk about two blocks in and out of alleys and voila, we are at Tina's Hostel.

People wonder why I stay at hostels when traveling overseas. The answer is easy: there is always someone working that speaks English. Plus, there is no better place to meet people.

The girl takes me to my room and I see that it is a 4-bed room; two bunk beds. Very cheap, 30 Yuan each night or about $4.75. Can't beat that with a stick! It's a nice enough place and I am glad to be here. Here is my bunk (lower):

I haven't figured out yet what I will write on the wall before I leave but I will share if I remember.

Eric and I decide to go for a walk a few minutes after I am checked-in. We look at buildings to find landmarks so we can get back later. The problem is it was still light out. When we attempt to return, it is dark and that's where some difficulties arise. More on that later.

We walk up the street to find an area where people are dancing.

We then proceed to walk to the city center. Here is the Rolex clock tower that signifies the center of the center of the city (no, I did not stutter):

We also saw meals in the near future in cages:

Yes. those are rabbits. We also saw larger rabbits and hens in cages as well. In fact, if you got the grocery store, you can get your fish 'live'. That's right. They fish the one out of the tank you want and put it into your shopping cart. So, as you go down the aisle, you have a fish flopping in your cart. I'm not joking.

There are more shops here in this area than I have ever seen. With all the lights, it's almost like day-time. After walking for a while and getting pretty warm from the humidity, we stopped into a restaurant where, surprise surprise, no one spoke english. Except for one man. A customer. So he helps us order. I tell him to surprise us but to order enough where both Eric and I would be full because we are terribly hungry. The restaurant we are at is called a hot-pot restaurant. They bring out this huge metal octagonal pot and put it in the middle of the table. In the table there is a hole where there is a butane lighter thing in it. The pot is full of hot (spicy) oil. Once they light the fire, it doesn't take long to get the oil boiling. Our food arrives with each meat and vegatable on its own dish. We pour the beef, fish, and beef into the oil as well as the cabbage, some noodles, and some other god knows what plants. It takes a very short time to cook. Here's what it looks like:

Eric and I use our chopsticks to start digging food out of the boiling oil. The meat is fairly easy to grab minus the fish. The vegetables are another story. I finally get a piece of cabbage out, dip it into some ginger sauce, and place it in my mouth. Has anyone ever had their teeth and mouth cleaned with an acetylene torch? Holy Mary Mother Of God! It was like eating fire! People at other tables (not a one of them western) are looking at us and start laughing. I am ignoring them because I am afraid the flames will spread from my mouth to my clothes and really cause a problem. I have water flowing from my eyes but unfortunately it evaporates as soon as it gets close to my mouth. I am chugging water and tea and finally the flames are extinguished. No more cabbage for me. I don't know what it is about the cabbage but it absorbs all the spicy hot stuff. That was easily the hottest thing I have ever had in my mouth. I know that didn't help the stomach situation but since my intestines were already on 'Full Steam Ahead' I figured I would just keep eating. The pork and beef may have been good. It may have been bad. Since all the nerve endings on my tongue were already incinerated, I can't tell you what it tasted like. I hope it was good.

On the way back to the hostel, it was obvious we stuck out. It was dark by now and so we had little idea of exactly where we were. We were going to ask a few people how to get back but since our mouths no longer worked and we couldn't control our drooling (think of the dentist and trying to drink something through a straw with your mouth novacained), we just continued walking. We finally made it back about an hour later. By this time, our speech was approaching normalcy and the drooling had stopped. It was an eventful evening. I slept off and on because the hot food as well as the intestinal diuretic I had taken made continuous sleep impossible.

More later!

written by  akstoltzy on May 30, 2010 from Chongqing, China
from the travel blog: China
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