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World of Its Own To visit this country so strange for Europeans, my wife and I chose a 16-day package tour including Shanghai, a river cruise on the Yangtze up to Chongking, Xian and Peking. We travelled in 2001 in late spring when it is still possible to stand the enormous humidity. We were accompanied by one Dutch and three Chinese tourist guides who all spoke and understood English and German sufficiently. From Pudong airport, newly constructed highways lead to the 14-million metropolis of Shanghai. The contrast between poor and rich, between old and modern is enormous and far more pronounced than, for instance, in New York. On the one hand, an up-to-date business district with one of the most modern television towers in the world has been conjured on the right bank of the Huangpu river where swamps were expanding just ten years ago. On the other hand, you see incredibly neglected houses and lanes in the old town. Nevertheless, there are a lot of objects of interest in the old town e. g. the entwined Yu garden. This charming garden with ponds and pavilions, artificial hills and old trees contains the four typical elements of Chinese gardens: water, plants, stones and buildings, made of wood. In the old town bazaar, you can become acquainted with all kinds of Chinese arts and crafts and of course you can buy souvenirs en masse. The history of arts and crafts can be inspected very comprehensively and in great detail in the Shanghai Museum outside the old town with one of the world´s largest collections of calligraphy, jade processing, ceramics, etc. Very interesting and typically Chinese as well is the Jade Buddha Temple with two inestimably precious buddha statues. The temple is still in religious use, thus the visitor gets an authentic impression of Buddhism. The air is thick with the smell of incense. In spite of the increasing car traffic, the bicycle is still the dominant vehicle. Wait at a crossing for the traffic lights to switch to green and you are flooded with cyclists. Cars and pedestrians have difficulties in passing the crossing. The famous “Bund”, the promenade on the left bank of the Huangpu lined by huge buildings of the colonial age, offers an attractive scenery as well as a fine view on the television tower and the modern business district on the opposite bank. The “Bund” is the starting point for cruises on the Yangtze river, also called Changjiang (“long river”), quite an appropriate name for the world’s third longest river with about 6,300 kilometres, following the rivers Nile and Amazon. We travelled about 2,200 km for the next nine days, just about a third of its total length. At the beginning of our journey, the Yangtze was so broad that we could hardly see its banks. Being the dominant waterway in central China, ships of any size, most of them far from modern, are permanently roaring by. The advantages of a river cruise compared to a sea cruise are the small ship size, outward cabins for all guests and hardly any rocking. The ship was sailing every night to manage the enormous distance. The permanent roaring of the ship engine was troublesome and bearable with ear protection only. The meals were outstanding, served at large tables for eight people each. During every meal, new delicious dishes were continuously supplied on large trays. We always came to about ten courses and it was difficult not to eat too much. Besides dishes known in Europe as well, exotic courses were offered like seaweed or frogs. All meals were prepared with little fat and therefore were easily digestible and tasted extremely good. Although these meals were served 15 days long for lunch and dinner, the variety was absolutely sufficient. I cannot remember ever having enjoyed meals as much as in this vacation. After two days of sightseeing in Shanghai, we took off sailing upstream and arrived at our first stop, Yangzhou. The bus traveling from the river to the city passes the “Emperor Channel” connecting Shanghai with Peking. Boats are loaded with bamboo trunks to the top and to both sides to such an extent that the boats themselves cannot be seen any more. In the city, the Daming Monastery is worth a visit. Everything is again typically Chinese with curved roofs, incense, orange-clad monks and a pagoda to climb. Furthermore, a boat trip to the West Lake is both entertaining and relaxing. Boats decorated with dragon ornaments are skimming through a pleasant park area while you enjoy a cup of Chinese tea - not too bad. The park offers again the four typical garden elements mentioned above. We went ashore at our destination - large collections of lotus and water lilies and a special bridge. It is zigzag shaped - to prevent ghosts from passing the bridge. The next
day we arrived in the former Chinese capital Nanjing, which means “southern
capital” in contrast to We spent the next day cruising on the river, resting from several days of sightseeing. We let the landscape pass, relaxing in the sun on the upper deck, enjoyed a massage, visited a calligraphy exhibition on board and listened to several lectures on Chinese issues: politics, economics, tradition vs. modernity, dam project, art and culture, and a very personal report by one of our guides on his time in the Chinese army. The next day we made a trip to the Lu Shan (Lu mountains). Starting from Jinjiang, the bus passes rice fields cultivated with oxen like ages ago. A walk leads us through foggy rain forests with a couple of fine views though. Back to civilization, Wuhan welcomed us with the “Yellow Crane Pagoda” the next day. The huge 51 metres high five-storey building looks as if made of curved roofs only. Climbing the pagoda offers a view on the 5-million metropolis - or at least what can be seen of it in the haze. Passing Jingzhou with yet another interesting city wall brought us closer to the Three Gorges Dam. In the following night we were rudely woken at four o’clock by crew members tapping at our window, shouting “fire” and requesting us to leave the cabin immediately and to gather on the forecastle. We hurried to do so, left our cabin through the window and, having gathered as requested, were told the following: a cable fire had completely destroyed the restaurant. Fortunately, the cabins had remained undamaged. Some passengers were injured by broken window glass when hastily leaving their cabins through the windows, but in the end we were glad nobody was hurt badly Our ship docked in the next city, Yichang. We had to pack our things and go ashore - taking a last look at our ship, which we could not use any more to continue our trip. After an unplanned breakfast in a top hotel, we travelled by bus passing the Gezhou Dam built in 1988 to the Three Gorges Dam Construction Site without knowing how we would proceed with our trip. Already in the beginning of the last century, Sun Yatsen had dreamt of such a project, which was determined on as late as in 1992. The major reasons for this project are the use of water energy, flood control and of course prestige, as this is the largest dam ever built in the world. As the key figures of this project are so enormous, allow me to give you some basic data. The 2.3 km long dam with a crest elevation of 185 m above sea level will create a reservoir of 600 km length and a capacity of 39 billion m³. Based on a water catchment area of one million km² (four times larger than the U.K.), the dam will have to cope with an annual water runoff of 451 billion m³ and a sediment discharge of 526 million m³. For efficient flood control, it will be possible to handle a maximum water discharge capacity of 102,000 m³ per second. The power generating capacity of 18 GW will replace the combustion of about 50 million tons of raw coal each year. To build this dam, a construction time of 17 years (1993-2009) and about US$50 billion is required. About 10,000 people are working there around the clock, but as the construction site of 15 km² is so huge, you hardly see any workers. The bus tour leads the visitors for several kilometres through a landscape completely turned upside down. A central observation point offers you a view over nothing but cranes, concrete, reinforced bars and rock - up to the horizon losing itself in the mist. Some more incredible data on the construction site: 103 million m³ of earth and rock excavation, 32 million m³ of earth and rock embankment, 28 million m³ of concrete placement. No wonder this was the world’s largest construction site! Meanwhile, the tourist guides had succeeded in organising a new ship so that we could continue our cruise in the afternoon, with only little delay. We now passed the dam construction site by ship and thus entered the reservoir region – today, two years later, it is filled with water, as the dam was closed in June 2003. The mountains in the following region of the Three Gorges Xiling, Wu and Qutang are about 1,100 metres above sea level. It was very relaxing to let the impressive landscape pass by for a couple of hours. Shipping in this region had not always been so pleasant. Prior to defusing lots of rapids, shipping was dangerous for boats and small ships. Before the introduction of engines, shipping was also extremely exhausting for those poor guys who had to tow the ships on narrow paths somewhere on the steep banks. On the slopes we regularly recognised signs reading “175”, marking the planned upper water limit above sea level in the reservoir. At the narrowest place with a width of only 50 metres, the passage became considerably quicker. Due to the enormous mountain height mentioned above, the landscape impression in the Three Gorges will not change dramatically when the water level rises from 65 m to 175 m. However, the Three Little Gorges branching off the Yangtze, which we unfortunately missed due to the delay, probably will be affected. About 1.1 million inhabitants will have to be resettled due to the flooded area of 632 km². Having passed the gorges, we could see the resettlement measures going on. The towns directly on the river banks mostly were abandoned up to the 175 m marking, while innumerable faceless blocks of flats, forming the new towns, were lining the mountain flanks for kilometres - a terrible view. The last highlight on our cruise was reached about 150 km west of the gorges in Shibaozhai. The humidity is at its upper limit, in the mist we saw the pagoda vertically built into a mountain. We climbed the pagoda while the sweat was running down the body at a temperature of only 27°C; our T-shirts were completely wet after only a couple of minutes. The exertion is rewarded by a most appealing pagoda richly decorated with all those fine Chinese ornamental details we have come to love during our cruise. The view from the pagoda, however, was - what a surprise! - pretty restricted; we could merely recognise our ship below – the landscape was hiding itself in the mist. We reached Chongking and thus the end of our Yangtze cruise at dawn, when the skyscrapers are hardly recognisable. We were informed that Chongking officially is the largest city in the world - with about 30 million inhabitants spread on 80,000 km², an area as large as Austria. A one-hour flight brought us to the airport of Xian, where we started sightseeing with the famous terracotta army (or Qin Army) outside the city. In the 3rd century B.C., the obviously megalomaniac emperor Qin Shihuang, who called himself the “First God-Like Monarch”, commanded that an army of 7,000 soldiers be made of clay to guard his grave. Each of the statues a little larger than life is shaped individually and was originally painted. The army was discovered by chance in 1974 - up to now a mere 15% have been excavated. Due to the 2,300 years of decay, it will still take a very long time until all statues will be reconstructed and may be visited. After this very impressive visit, we went to the city of Xian. During the Tang dynasty in the 7th to 8th century BC, the city then called Chang´an was the largest metropolis in the world with one million inhabitants living on 80 km². After a short visit of the plain “Wild Goose Pagoda”, we admired the mighty city wall, which is so wide that on its top two chariots can pass by one another without any problems. Another interesting feature of Xian is the Forest of Stelae with huge vertical stone slabs inscribed all over, in former days serving as a pattern to create calligraphies or printed textiles - the ancient version of copying. In a workshop for jade processing we admired the workers’ handicraft skills while they are working with the most simple means. It was shocking, however, to visit the “Free Market”, where the well-known Chinese cruelty towards animals becomes all too obvious. Animals like snakes, tortoises or crabs are first kept in much too narrow cages. Alive, their extremities are cut off or their body is cut into pieces before they are finally killed. The last highlight of our trip was Beijing, which we reached after another one-hour flight. First we visited a section of the Great Wall, about 80 km north of Peking, by bus. Strolling along a small section of this 6,000 km long bastion against the Mongolians is more like climbing and pretty exhausting. The wall was built without considering the mountainous topology and therefore it is partly extremely steep with very high stairs. The view over the wall, which is winding through the mountains like a snake, is charming. The following visit to the Ming graves was nice, but not as fascinating as most other objects of interest on this trip. The last day of our journey was reserved for the city of Peking, beginning with the well-known Tiannanmen Square, the largest city square in the world. To the north of it, you pass through the “Gate of the Heavenly Freedom” to arrive in the “Forbidden City” (Emperor’s Palace). In the centre of this 960 x 750 m² large area all-around lined by walls, there are the throne and the audience halls “Hall of Highest Harmony”, “Hall of Perfect Harmony” and “Hall of Preservation of Harmony”. Next to the north is the former residential district of thousands of concubines, lady’s maids and eunuchs - the emperor was the only procreative man allowed in the palace. The visit of countless palaces, halls, chambers and objets d´art is interesting, but exhausting. In the afternoon, the “Heaven´s Altar” (Tian Tan) is on the programme. The long way through the park passing several nice buildings culminates in the “Hall of Harvest Prayer” - a wooden construction accomplished in shape and colour. The culinary culmination of our trip was enjoying an original Peking duck - with pancakes, green onions, soy sauce and a demonstration of how to wrap everything. It was time to leave. Our flight back took us over the Gobi desert, the endless expanses of Siberia and finally back home. I can hardly imagine 16 days of vacation filled with more fascinating impressions of a world still so strange to us First published in VISA issues 53A and 54 (Dec-Jan 2004) |