China 2017

We are up early, around four thirty and finalise the packing. Off I go now to determine the correct procedure. I take the cases to what I believe to be the correct place, but there are no others there. I go to the front desk to get the labels, but there is no one there and the deck is in darkness. I see a young lady behind a screen and she comes out and switches the lights on. Another lady explains the correct case procedure and gives me the required labels. I return to the cases which I have now confirmed are correctly located. We await our reunion later on today.

An early cup of coffee and then on to breakfast. We have a final laugh with our new British friends and exchange email addresses. We say our goodbyes as we get up to leave in case we don not meet up again during the day. We return to our cabin and pick up our hand luggage and trot off to our allocated waiting point. Shortly thereafter we are transferred to a smaller vessel which is to transport us through the ship elevator at the Three Gorges Dam. This ship, still comprising five decks, is soon accommodating the passengers from two Victoria cruise ships. The departing and arriving passengers are easily identified. The departing ones have stickers stuck to them, the arriving ones have lanyards. We cast off now and proceed toward the ship elevator. As we get nearer the structure appears to swallow up our vessel, as if in a James Bond film. The gate behind us closes, and in front there is a short door over which we can see the Yangtze in the valley floor about ninety metres below. WIth no fanfare, claxons or flashing lights the elevator begins to lower us slowly toward the river level now below us. One of our friends, who is a civil engineer by trade, is excited by the experience. The whole process from entering the lift to exiting at the bottom takes around twenty minutes. It is a truly awesome feat of engineering what has been accomplished here, but at significant cost to the original inhabitants of the Yangtze valley. Over one million people were displaced by the flood behind the dam, and many were relocated to other cities around China including Shanghai and Beijing.

We moor up now just downstream of the Three Gorges Project site, and our group of English speakers transfers to a small coach. We join our guide Mandy and driver Mr. Ching. By the way, it seems that there are only five family names in China, so the same name seems to crop up in one form or another with regularity. I attempt to check on the whereabouts of our luggage, and am assured that I will be seeing them after we get off the bus. I am not sure where this is likely to be. We enter the Three Gorges Project site and pass through the strict security check. I imagine China is rightly concerned about the security of this site. Back on the bus we head off to the main information building and the washrooms. Onward using a series of three long escalators we reach a monument at the top, a very pleasant park with a water garden that gives panoramic views over the dam, power houses, ship locks and ship elevator. The size of the project is truly amazing. Over twenty thousand construction workers worked on the site. Two thousand maintenance workers remain. The ship locks with two streams, one going upriver and one downriver have five sections and are operated by gravity. The elevator is powered by gravity and electricity generated on site.

After picture taking and a walk around the group meets up again and we walk down a winding road to return to the coach. We are off again, and still not sure where it is we are going, but Mandy tells us shortly after we settle down that we are heading to Yichang cruise terminal. I doze off for a while during the journey. We arrive about an hour later in Yichang and the coach deposits us at the Victoria Cruises Cruise Terminal. This is a dilapidated building which has obviously seen better days. In the distance I see our luggage awaiting our reunion. As I move to pick them up our guide Mr. Chang (call me Emperor) moves in to introduce himself and asks for the luggage tags, he will pay for the transfer cost for two bags but I need to cough up RMB25 for the third. Luggage and guide found we leave the terminal and into a car to transport us to Yichang centre for lunch. We eat at a pleasant hotel, with a private dining room located behind a curtain. Even though we cannot see what is going on outside, we still have the usual Chinese “gentlemen’s soundtrack”. This is another of the Chinese International Travel Service’s default lunch stops and is a bit better than average. The food is basic but wholesome. When we are done “Emperor” appears at the curtain and asks if we have finished. We confirm we have and he asks if he can have some of the potatoes that remain. He polishes them off and proceeds to move on to the beef and chicken dishes all the while chomping and lip smacking as he talks to us. We leave now and make a visit to a museum contains artefacts dug up from the dam site prior to construction. The government gave the archaeologists two years to do their work before concrete laying began. There is undoubtedly many further treasures now under the water. Next stop is a old pagoda and riverside park where we relax. As we walk a little further in the park we encounter a strange smell. It is burning camphor being used by a photographers assistant to make a smokey backdrop for a couples wedding photographs. This area is famous for its camphor trees. Another couple are a little further down the path having their photos done as well.

After the park Emperor asks us what we would like to do next. We suggest going to the airport despite him advising it is a bit early. We really are a bit bushed by now and just want to get somewhere to sit down without the demands of paying attention to a guide and the associated running commentary.

Despite our early arrival at the airport, Emperor has a word with the counter staff and our bags are checked in. We bid farewell to the guide and head off to security. As we show our passports and boarding passes at the security gate the lady turns us away, explaining through gestures and finger pointing that we are too early. We have no option but to return now to the waiting room landside. When we enter the coffee shop we see and Australian family we met on the cruise. They were not able to even check their bags on due to the early arrival. We sit and chat, I with tea my companion with coffee and pass the time. Some time later we see our British cruise table companions walking toward us. Unknown to them until they were united with their guide at Yichang the time of their flight to Beijing has been put back five hours. They have a very long wait ahead of them. We chat some more and one last time say our goodbyes as we get ourselves through security and on to the flight to Shanghai.

At Shanghai airport now we are bused from the aeroplane to the arrivals building, a very long and bumpy ride. We get our cases and Elena greets us. She seems unsure of where we need to go and is looking around for the car park sign for our ride. My companion now is very tired and when the driver passes our hotel and then after going around the block is about to pass it again becomes involved in a minor altercation with two individuals standing in the hotel driveway on their mobile phones who will not get out of the way. Elena thinks she is being shouted at, but eventually realises what is going on. Cases unloaded Elena is gone. The normal procedure is for the guide to check us in, but we are now passed caring and take care of the formalities ourselfves. This is delayed slightly by the special passport copier breaking as it takes a copy of my passport so the lady behind the counter has to go to an office to complete the task. We finally get to the room at eleven thirty. Thankfully we do not have an early start in the morning for our half day tour of the city.