Russ&Suzie

Trip Log
2006-05-15 00:37:24 (UTC)

Changjiang or Yangtse & Three Gorges; now Shanghai

The satellite signal to the ship on which we traveled down
the "long river" (Changjiang according to the Chinese) was
so slow and unpredictable that I decided to forego the 50
yuan-costing privilege to use it ad lib for the journey and
catch up with this journal in Shanghai. Have a few minutes
to begin that attempt this morning.

First, the dynamics of the group provide interest as we
anticipate disbanding after today (I decided to eat today
as eating is quite social and I did not wish to be
antisocial on our last day together). As an offshoot of
this Susan Doane and I happened to sit together on the
airplane from Yichang to Shanghai yesterday and came up
with the idea of a novel with the following components that
I dreamed up during the night when unable to sleep. TItle:
Walking Backwards Through CHina. It would feature
characters based roughly on the fellow participants. Ella
S. waited, instance, for a seat on Business class as she
has two replaced knees and yesterday being MOther's DAy,
and my own mother being named Ella, and the character Hai
in Shanghai, being an ever flowing mother (it includes two
nipples and a spout!) sea, the first chapter is Entering
Shanghai on MOther's DAy. NIce fireworks last night visible
through our window told of how the holiday is an official
one in China as well as the US.

A second chapter (working backwards after all) entltled
Matriarchy in the EAst Branch of the Xiling Gorge
(pronounced She-ling). WE stayed over night the night
before in the middle of the Xiling Gorge where the huge dam
site has its location. So we then traveled east towards
Yichang from there on the boat before disembarkation in the
early afternoon. We marveled at the spectacular scenery of
limestone cliffs, with graceful arcs of green over the
cliff faces of gray streaked with black. A village on the
south bank, never named by the narrator for the cruise,
MIchael Yang, but described, turned out to be matriarchal
in type: mothers and grandmothers make all the key
decisions and males are never allowed knowledge of certain
secrets.

The third chapter, Granite in the MIddle of Limestone on
the Yangtse, tells about the location of the great dam:
granite possessed much greater hardness and stability for
the site than would the friable limestone that
characterizes most of its course. (Of course the title
testifies to the greater stability of some characters
compared to the creativity and flexibility of others). We
received a tour of the damsite, had the quick elevator (vs
the slower five locks) for small boats, saw the lovely
gardens and viewing platforms, and all kinds of granite
scattered about (no limestone monuments or formations here -
- all granite!).

And then the fourth chapter, Gorgeous in the Lesser Gorges,
features a romantic plot twist that will come to me (us) at
some later point. WE did have a wonderful side excursion up
into the Daning River for splendid scenery and enjoyable
connections with fellow passengers. The La MOntes had a
very pleasant conversation with the Taiwanese parents of
two beautiful young daughters, both of whom are doctors
going for their residencies in high prestige U.S. programs,
one in ENdocrinology andthe other in Orthopedics. Carroll
Moore and I felt grateful for having done that, been there,
both of us enthusiastic when their age, but very glad to be
at our present stage at present.

Before then we had seen the most dramatic of the gorges,
the first one, with the water level not, so far, affecting
the river. The second one has been already affected. Many
water level signs all along testify to what will yet be
flooded when the maximum stage of 179 meters comes about in
2009.

All for now; I may modify this later, but there's some time
pressure for now!




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