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Shun Qing
Ngee Ann-OIP Wuhan(3rd Batch)
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Sunday, September 20, 2009, 5:37 PM
Day 18 to Day 20 Trip to Three Gorges
Day 18
We are waking up earlier and earlier day by day. In order to have sufficient time for the long hours of journey, we had to wake up and gather at the administration building by 6.30am. Led by our main tour guide and a couple of other local tour guides, we headed off to a province known as “宜昌县” (Yi Chang Xian).
Before reaching the Three Gorges Dam, we went past a lot of rural houses, tunnels and bridges. And as we went past, our tour guide explained to us about why the Three Gorges Dam was built and why these other infrastructures are here…
I remembered about one part that she mentioned – the rural houses. These houses belong to the constructors’ houses. Before the dam was built, Yi Chang Province had floods all day long. Hence, with the intention of saving their own villages and plantations from being damaged by floods again, these homeless villagers became the constructors for the Three Gorges Dam. And eventually, as the construction of dam had completed, these villagers settled down and built their houses. As we reached the Three Gorges Dam Park, we had another tour guide to explain in greater details as to how the dam was built and how it works. Then, we took a tour bus to go to the different stops and have a close view with the dam. But too bad we came at the wrong time; we never manage to see the opening of the dam gates.
After touring, having our dinner, and waited for quite some time, we finally board onto the China’s 4 Star cruise. Haha… 4 Star cruise.
This is my first time taking a cruise, and I think I might not really like it especially when there is half-naked guy staying at the room opposite, plus the room is stuffy and has a funny ‘shrimp’ smell in it. Oh… But I think the sceneries that I am going to see for the next few days shall compensate for this!
Day 19
Finally, after the whole night of sailing, our cruise has reached the Wu Gorge.
After having our breakfast at 6am, the cruise stopped us at 白帝城 (or the White Emperor City) for a short tour. 白帝城 is located at the Northern shore of the Yangtze River. Because of its ‘mysterious’ atmosphere, it is also known as a great place for poets to recite and compose their poems.
Subsequently, we went back to the cruise to have our lunch and shortly after that, we boarded on to a smaller ship for our next sightseeing destination -神农溪 (A.K.A Shennong Stream).
神农溪, is a river stream that flows through the Badong County, where the Tujia people lives. Later, we will be sitting on board a pea-shaped boat that is sailed by a few Tujia guys. But first, while we sailed along the river, we saw a lot of beautiful sceneries and took some photos of it:
Hanging coffin. But how did it get up there? Done when the water level is high? Done by landing the coffin from the top of the mountain to the hole? Or done by pulling the coffin up from the boat to the hole?
Oh well, that’s a mystery.
Few moments later, we got up the pea-shaped boat and off we go! As the boat continues to sail, the local tour guide told us about how the Tujia people lived, how the boat trackers come about, and what will be happening here in a few years’ time down the road.
Let me share with you 2 of the topics that he shared:
1st:
In the Tujia culture, whenever a mother has give birth to a daughter, the father will have to plant bamboos and 黄杨树 (Huang Yang Shu) outside their quarters. This is because in Chinese, bamboo represents expanding in continuity (节节高升). On the other hand, because 黄杨树 grows very slowly, it got a nickname called 千年矮. Hence, when the daughter is going to be married, her father would have to chop down the tree to make a pair of comb as a blessing from her father, hoping that the couple’s love could last forever, just like the tree.
2nd:
Ever since the Three Gorges Dam was built, the water level there has rose for about 155 metres at the mouth of the Shen Nong Stream. And around 5 to 10 years down the road, the water level will continue to rise for about 25 metres high. Having said here, our boat trackers came down to pull the boat.
Along the way, the boat trackers gave us some stones from the river as a souvenir.
After the rafting, all of us took the trip back and had our dinner. Sometime later, Alvin, Eshlyn and I went up to have a close up view of the cruise sailing into the water lock. There are about 5 locks in total, and each lock takes about 30 to 45 minutes to process. Although we were going at a downward direction, watching it in live was like: “Oh my goodness! I am actually seeing something that has been taught in lesson!”
Day 20
Subconsciously asleep, I noticed that we finished the last lock at about 4 to 5am. Then again, we had our breakfast on the cruise. After the meal, we packed up and headed back to our campus hostel and back to our air-con room! On our way, we bought this stuff from a supermarket for our lunch, and then bid goodbye to our tour guide.
This is the most amazing trip ever!!!
Reflections
Day 18
Let’s take the aforementioned story as the topic.
If you do not know, Yi Chang Province (宜昌县) was previously known as 夷陵 (Yi Ling). Why the Government renamed it? As mentioned earlier, before the construction of Three Gorges Dam, Province would usually have floods all day long and the loss of properties and lives were a quite lot. Therefore, in order to prevent such disaster from happening, other than building the dam, the Government renamed the province to Yi Chang Province (宜昌县). If I am not wrong from what our tour guide had said, the meaning of this name is to allow that area to suit (适宜) the surroundings and the people there shall live with prosperity (昌盛).
Heard from my grandmother and the IS teachers, Chinese are quite particular about the Fengshui and even the name of everything. One decision made regarding position of things in accordance to Fengshui or naming of names, could either change for the better or the worse. In this case, a change in name could actually change the outcome of the circumstances for the better.
Day 19
“世界纤夫在哪里,长江三峡神农溪”
Listening to the stories and histories of the different places fascinates me a lot. Take the ones at the Shennong Xi for example, we realized that there are a lot of untold stories waiting for us to discover. Kudos to our tour guide who is willing to share so much so much things about the stream and its people. Without him telling us, we will not be able to fully appreciate their surroundings and their way of life. Moreover, it is not just anyone whom can have the chance to listen to these stories especially when the traditions and old cultures are going to fade away day-by-day. Heard from the tour guide, boat trackers nowadays cannot depend solely on their job for income; they had to become a farmer in the morning and boat tracker in the afternoon. With the invention of motor boat, fewer people are willing to become a boat tracker and almost all of their children had already gone to the town to seek for a better job. Who knows, maybe one day, the job of a boat tracker will be cease to exist.
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