Chongqing is located at the confluence of the Yangtzi and Jialing rivers. In the evening, we boarded the East Queen Cruise Ship waiting for us on the Yangtzi River. It is the most luxurious ship. Our cabins are on the 2nd floor with picture windows, TV, mini-bar, fluffy bathrobes and mini bathrooms. The top floor is a sun deck and there is a small health club with sauna/steam rooms, a bar/disco, restaurant, library, mahjong rooms, etc. Tomorrow morning we set off down the Yangtzi. It is the 3rd longest river in the world after the Amazon and the Nile.

The charm of the boat has worn off slightly. They were determined to let everyone know that we were setting sail at 6am by blasting the horn numerous times. Then we had absolutely the worst food we’ve been offered in the China. And to top it off, it is rainy season on the Yangtzi, we had a bit of drizzle and a gray misty day. Despite this, we had an interesting day. Charles Mason, the Asian art curator from the Allen Memorial Art Museum who is the “tour enrichment lecturer” gave us a lesson in Chinese calligraphy. We each got a brush, ink and paper and tried to write a few words. It’s a lot harder than it looks. The order of the strokes, the fat parts and thin tails of the strokes, how much ink to have on the brush and the many parts to each character are very difficult. As we were practicing many of the ship’s staff came by to watch us through the window. I suppose it looks a bit odd having an American teach Chinese calligraphy.

Later in the day, we stopped at the Stone Treasure Village. The most interesting thing about this village is that it will no longer exist when the dam is finished in 2009. The dam project is one of the most controversial in the world. The government insists that it is the solution to power shortages and flooding problems. The protesters say it will flood so much arable land, displace 1.4 million people, flood 1000s of historical sights and upset the animals and environmental balance. The Stone Treasure Village has a pagoda going up the mountain with a temple on the top built about 500AD. The bottom of the pagoda is below the future water line of 175 metres. They plan to build a wall around it and a bridge to access it. The new town has already been built higher on the hill. 50% of the people have already moved and the rest must move in the next 2 years. Each family must find their own new accommodation and if they want more space in the modern buildings, they must pay for it. All along the Yangtzi between Chongqing where we embarked and the dam, you see new ugly modern apartment blocks high up on the hill above where the water line will be.

This will create another problem which is increased water shortages. Already, there is a problem with water, but when everyone gets proper plumbing and starts flushing “Western” toilets and having showers, the problem will be exacerbated. Environmental issues are the biggest long term challenge that China has. 60% of the energy is produced by burning coal. Most families cook with coal, polluting both the environment and their lungs. Deforestation has resulted in decreased land productivity and much of the good quality soil being washed into the rivers. China has one of the most serious soil erosion problems in the world. China imports much of its food as the land cannot produce enough to feed everyone. The air is so polluted that trees are sometimes brown. Particle levels in northern cities are 10 times higher than in London. 407 micrograms per cubic metre vs. 48 in London – 90 is the maximum recommended particle level for safety by the WHO. In addition, they have an acid rain problem.

April 10, 2000

Today was the day we sailed through the 3 gorges. The first, Qutang Gorge, which was the shortest at 8km and most dramatic came at 6:30am. Then came the much longer Wu Gorge 1 hour later. As the ship goes through these narrow passageways, the wind is so strong, you can barely keep upright. The river swirls and dances with white caps breaking everywhere.

After breakfast, we were transferred to wooden Sampans, each taking about 10 people. We were to travel upstream on a tributary which flows into the Yangtzi called Shennong Stream. The Sampan was pulled upstream by 4 men called trackers. They wore shirts, colorful underpants and suit jackets. On their feet they had homemade sandals woven from bamboo leaves. I felt a bit guilty about them doing such hard manual labour, but it was only 1 km upstream and then they had a rest and floated downstream in the boat with us. Also the 4 trackers and the 2 guys in the boat who steered and poled (like punting) owned the boat themselves. Apparently they only work 3 days a week as boatmen but earn more money at this than they do from their other job which is farming. In the old days, trackers used to pull barges up the Yangtzi River. There are paths cut into the gorges for them. That must have been a terrible job to pull a boat upstream at the gorges where the water flows so fast. The boat trip took us upstream through beautiful gorges. The water level was very low and several industrious vendors waded through the water following us to try and sell various souvenirs. Coming back, it was silent except for a few birds and the sound of rushing water. This was one of the highlights of the whole trip.

In the afternoon, we arrived at the 3rd gorge. This is where the new dam is being constructed. It is the largest construction site in the world. It will consist of 5 locks for ships each taking 30 minutes to go through, a “ship elevator” for small ships, the main dam with 2 power generation plants and a middle section to let the water pass and to deal with the silt. The men working on the site look like little ants compared to the size of the project. The base of the dam will be 100 metres or 5 football fields wide. This is what will hold back the full weight of the water. They have built viewing towers and nice landscaped areas from which to view the project. You could almost imagine it was a James Bond movie set.

Along the river, we also passed a number of hillside cemeteries. Now, the government requires that everyone be cremated. This is very upsetting for the Buddhists as they believe the soul needs somewhere to reside and it the body is burned, the soul will have nowhere to go.

Sunday, April 9

This morning, we flew from Lijiang to Chongqing (via Kunming). All flights were on time so we arrived in time for a Sichuan lunch. Everywhere we go we have been enjoying enormous banquets featuring local specialities. Sichuan food is the spiciest of all Chinese food. Today’s chicken dish was

Lijiang is another valley city surrounded by high mountains. It’s a 4 hour drive from Dali through the mountains and fields. Lijiang is the poorest area we’ve been to so far. The land surrounding the town is of poorer quality than in Dali. There are just over 1.8 million people in the area, 57% of which are minorities. The largest minority here are the Naxi who are related to Tibetans. The old town is a real gem. It is my favorite of all places I have seen in China so far. Although there are many tourist shops, there is no aggressive selling and there are just as many local shops as tourist ones. They have preserved the old buildings and winding streets instead of proudly replacing them with brand new horrible modern buildings. The old town is protected as a historical sight by UNESCO.

The old town is crisscrossed by 3 streams. The water flows down from the surrounding mountains and seems relatively clean. The villagers wash everything in the streams – clothes, pots, mops etc. There is an atmosphere that makes you want to sit in the outdoor cafes and watch the world go by.

The Naxi religion is called Dongba and is based on worship of nature and ancestors. Every mountain and plant has a god. They don’t have temples because they have altars at home. While the Naxi have their own language, only the priests can read and write it. It is a pictorial language which looks a bit like hieroglyphics. There was an interesting temple which we saw which mixed Buddhism, Taoism and Dongba.

A short drive from the town, we took a cable chair up the mountain to see the view. It was fairly cold and you could see snow a bit further up as well as the tallest mountain which was 18,000 ft. Most of us rented thick colorful jackets for the ride up.

At the top, there is a spruce forest and then a field. The Naxi people dress in bright capes and enormous fox fur hats and perform local songs for people wandering around the field.

Animal rights are not a priority in China. We stopped by the side of the road to watch roof tiles being made. They have a blindfolded water buffalo who must walk in a pit to keep the clay malleable. He was obviously distressed and when he stops walking someone kicks him in the face. At the hotel in Dali, they had lots of chirping birds in cages in the lobby. I thought they made such a nice sound, but when I walked over, there were medium sized birds in tiny cages so they couldn’t even spread their wings. They were hopping around madly. While a number of people have pet dogs and cats, you never see them petting or playing with the pets. I suppose with a country full of people who are so poor, animal rights simply don’t exist. For that matter, old women carry enormous baskets of bricks and old men pull carts with many times their weight. It’s all rather sad.

Thursday, April 6

Dali is a valley about 5,500 ft high surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It is the center of the Bai people who are related to the Thais and have a culture going back about 3000 years. The old town is mainly a pedestrian zone full of tourist shops. The local specialty is marble and there are many marble slabs, statues and other marble products for sale.

We went to visit a typical Bai village outside of Dali. Unlike the Han people who believe that white is the color of mourning, the Bai people use white on their houses as a symbol of purity. Their houses are usually in courtyard form with buildings on 3 sides – living quarters, animal pens (pigs, horses, chickens) and kitchen. The 4th side shades the main rooms from the sun in the morning and reflects light into the rooms in the afternoon. The Bai people make complicated batik clothes and materials. They first paint the pattern on the material, then sew it in bunches, dye it and then sew it into table clothes, bags, clothes etc.

April 4-5

Travel in China is an inexact science. Flights leave when they can, not when they?re scheduled. We spent 4 hours waiting for our plane to arrive in Kunming. The airport is fairly basic but we were getting used to unpredictable flights. We?re heading for a minority area of China. 93% of the population are of the Chinese Han race ? 7% of the population belong to one of 55 recognized minorities. These minorities are dominant in about 50% of the land mass, but mostly on the outer edges. The best known are the Tibet and Mongols. They have different languages, costumes, race etc. For instance, the Bai who live around Dali where we are going are descended from the Thais. Xian has large swings in temperatures ? getting up to over 100 degrees in the summer and very cold in the winter. Kunming has mild pleasant temperatures year round. It is about 5,000 ft above sea and the name means City of Eternal Spring.

Today we visited Yunnan University. It is one of the major universities in China with 6 campuses and over 1000 professors. We had a tour of the campus and met the president. Oberlin has a close relationship with Kunming University and sends 2 Shansi representatives who are recent graduates to teach English. The campus is idyllic ? they spent a lot of money in the past few years landscaping it ? trees, grass, flowers etc. The facilities are very poor but a Hong Kong businessman donated money for 100 computers and they are expanding the campus with new buildings at the moment. Students were sitting at tables outside and looking very studious. We passed a few dorms and were told that students live 8 to a room. I peeked inside a room and it looked like a train cabin with sets of bunk beds and room for very little else. The foreign students have much better quarters with kitchenettes. I wonder if it makes the Chinese students resentful? We heard from the president that he would like to make changes so that it was not so much exam-based learning and more flexible. Now, when you enter, you have to take the exact courses specified for your major. You have no choices. He is actually sending a delegation to Oberlin to study the course credit system. But all of us thought it would be a lovely place to study.

About 2 hours drive away from Kunming is the Stone Forest. It is an area full of fabulous stone formations.

Around the lake is a village where Sani or Yi people live. They have completely different costumes and traditions to the majority Han Chinese people. They wear colorful headdresses and aprons and specialize in embroidered craftwork. Their houses are made of adobe bricks.

Kunming is next to an enormous lake. On the hill next to the lake is the former palace of Kublai Khan?s grandson. It later became a Taoist temple with a Dragon Gate

April 2-3

In contrast to Beijing’s modern world city feel, Xian is more what I expected China to be like. Starting at the very chaotic airport which was overcrowded, inefficient and equipped with only stand-up Chinese toilets where balance is crucial! After finally getting all the bags, the ride into the city was in a bus with no suspension. We drove past countryside with some gentle mounds that are apparently tombs from the Han dynasty. Most have been robbed but the largest was from the Qin Emperor who spent his 4 decades in power 2000 years ago unifying the country from many kingdoms to one empire. He standardized the language, measurements, coins etc. And he also had 750,000 people working on his gravesite for 4 decades. He had them build him a terracotta army which are the famous statues that were discovered in 1974 by 3 brothers digging a well. They are in subterranean chambers and 1000 have been restored.

We stayed in the Hyatt hotel. Previous guests include the First Couple, Madeleine Albright and other dignitaries. Our 1st night, we have a dumpling banquet consisting of 17 different kinds of dumplings filled with pork, chicken, fish, vegetables.

A monk who traveled widely brought back Buddhist scriptures and persuaded the emperor to let him build a temple – the Wild Goose Temple to house them. This bell, engraved with prayers is in the gardens of the temple. By ringing it, you release the prayers into the heavens.

1% of the Xian population is Muslim – about 60,000. There is a beautiful mosque with various buildings including this minaret. We had dinner in the Moslem district – a delicious soup with mutton, noodles and bread.

The streets are very clean of litter but dusty. Pollution is so bad you can feel it in your lungs. The sky is very overcast – partly due to the weather but mostly due to the smog. Coal fuel is used and the winds bring sand from the Gobi desert. Street sweepers and shop keepers sweep like crazy but it just stirs up the dust. The city outskirts are a mixture of mud homes next to brand new skyscrapers. Many people travel by bicycle – women often perch on the back of a man’s bicycle or children on the back of their parents.

March 29, 2000

I will join my alma mater, Oberlin College Alumni tour of China for 3 weeks. After a very comfortable journey, I arrived in Beijing to find a shiny new modern airport – could have been anywhere until I got out of baggage. First, I went to change money. In the middle of the transaction, a Chinese man elbowed me aside and threw his money at the cashier. I expected her to tell him to wait, but she didn’t. I was worried that she would get confused about what she was doing, but she didn’t. Apparently, it’s all part of service. Then came the challenge of finding a taxi. How difficult can that be when you’ve been in airports all over the world? Unfortunately Beijing airport is not big on signage. The taxi rank is unmarked and 3 rows of cars away from the door. While I was trying to get my bearings, at least 10 inofficial taxi drivers accosted me. I realize that it is going to be essential to learn the word “NO” in Chinese. My taxi seat was covered in material with frilly bits on the edge and that was covered with a lace throw. The driver was encased in a Perspex cage. It had so many gaps in it, I could only imagine it was to stop someone garroting him from behind. (too many Bond movies running through my mind). Arriving at the hotel, I consulted the sheet from the travel agency. They said the fare would be approximately 150 Yuan, so I offered him two100 bills. He jumped back in horror and started gesticulating wildly. The doorman came to translate and it turned out the fare was only 83 Yuan. I’ve never seen anyone so adamant not to be overpaid.

Beijing is full of broad boulevards. Despite being full of cars, buses, bicycles, rickshaws, scooters etc, it’s surprising how unpacked the streets feel especially considering there are 8 million bicycles and 13 million people in Beijing. Rush hour in NYC is worse than here. Morning exercises in Coal Hill Park

Well, I’ve learned the word for “no” – it’s BOO! As soon as you emerge from the bus, souvenir vendors surround you like vultures. As I feared, the temples are fading into one another and it’s hard to keep them straight. Most temples are painted either red or earthy red – both inside and out. Red is the Chinese white.

The Great Wall is a tremendous sight. More than any other place we’ve been in the past 4 days, it has taken my breath away – partly because some of us climbed to the highest possible point! I never realized that the wall follows the top contours of the mountains and is very steep in many parts. In addition, the steps are sometimes 3 bricks high, sometimes 2 bricks and sometimes 1 brick. There is no logic to which comes when, so you have to concentrate very hard especially coming down the mountain as you can’t get into a rhythm and yet it is very steep.

Temple of Heaven

Marco Polo bridge at the Summer Palace

Saturday, March 25

My friend Lily and I explored downtown Seattle. It’s an international port city with a famous space needle and fun market along the waterfront. We happened to catch a Rhythm Festival at the Seattle Center. All the hippy dippies came out to drum and dance. It reminded me a bit of college. In the evening, Lily took me to see a wonderful concert with the cellist, Lynn Harrell and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra at their new symphony hall. Apparently the acoustics are unparalleled. Even Lynn Harrell remarked on it during his encore.

Monday, March 27

Thanks to the presence of the company, Boeing, Seattle has a fabulous Museum of Flight which is located right on the company’s runway so you can actually hear the control tower and watch the planes taking off and landing. It covers flight right from ballooning to space travel today.

In the center of the hall they have a Blackbird. An old gentleman who had been in the air force for 27 years told fascinating stories about it. It’s the fastest plane in the world with an acknowledged top speed of about 2,400 mph. Apparently, it flies across the US in about an hour. It was built in the 1960’s and used by the CIA for taking photographs. It has since been retired – apparently satellites do as good a job but for a lot less money!

Sunday, March 19

I have decided that if you have to change planes in a city, you might as well stop off and enjoy it. So I had lunch in Chicago with an old friend and went to visit the Chicago Institute of Fine Art. I have never seen such an enormous collection of impressionists outside of France. Enhanced by having the Sara Lee corporate collection there. Then I continued onto Salt Lake City. It was snowing hard when I arrived and made my way to Alta where my aunt Elizabeth had already settled in.

Monday, March 20

It hasn’t stopped snowing and the wind is very strong. I went skiing on fabulous power but I couldn’t see where I was going. By noon, I got frustrated with frequent white-outs, so I retreated back to the lodge. In addition, the mountain goes up to 11,000 ft. and I was feeling a bit of a headache and queasy which are apparently temporary altitude symptoms. I felt like a bit of a wimp but only

Saturday, March 18

I spent the day with my sister, Tanya who looked so great and full of life. It was really wonderful to see her. She decorated my suitcase for me – now I wont miss it in the airports and no one will dare steal it!

Tanya’s work of art!