up the wall

Once the Yangtze journey came to an end, it seemed like all I could think about was conquering the wall and heading home. Usually I dread the end of a trip but this time it couldn't come fast enough. It is too bad because Beijing has a lot of neat things to offer besides the wall. Of course all neat things lose their shine when you have FOOD POISONING!! Yes, after all the care I had taken up to this point, the salad bar on the boat took me down. Or at least I'm blaming the salad bar. And yes I know I shouldn't have eaten fresh veggies but it looked so good and so healthy. It didn't hit until the second night in Beijing so I got one good day in. So knowing that little tidbit, here's how the progression of events took place.

The night we landed we skipped dinner and headed straight for the hotel. Skipping dinner usually means we'll either get money back or in this case, a deal that secured us a Peking Duck meal for our second last night - an expensive Beijing's specialty.

Our first stop was Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Forbidden City, or Imperial Palace, was home to several emperors from the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor's wife and the concubines.

The Forbidden City was packed with very pushy tourists. At this point in the trip I had seen a number of ornate buildings painted in a similar way so although the site is incredible, I was now just going through the sightseeing motions.

After several hours of being knocked around by people, I was grumpy, tired and not interested in being anywhere else that hoards of tourists would also be. Which of course brings us to our next stop, the Summer Palace.

Summer Palace was the vacation spot from the Imperial Palace - the emperor's cottage. And to my horror - more pushy tourists. We walked along the Long Corridor - yes that's really it's name - until we decided to break from the crowd to go for higher ground. The guide, who didn't like a strenuous walk, tried everything to convince us that there was nothing to see; that we would miss the Marble Boat if we went this way, that it would take too long, but in the end finally followed us up the hill. After I convinced her that we had all the time in the world, she decided to be a good sport and show us some of the sights away from the mob. Finally we could stop and take a picture without being elbowed out of the way. We proceeded to have a very pleasant walk through the Summer Palace to the Marble Boat.

Our last event of the day was an acrobatics show which was incredible although I chose not to take pictures and just enjoyed the show.

On the way to dinner, I started feeling queasy. I thought I was just dehydrated since I would avoid liquids throughout the day in fear of actually having to use a public toilet. As we sat down to our Peking Duck, I realized this was more than a little queasy, this was full blown 'need to hold my lunch down' nausea. While I was concentrating on not getting sick, I look over Peter's shoulder just in time to catch a man blowing his nose onto the floor. That is correct. ON THE FLOOR of a restaurant - no Kleenex, just ... well you get the picture. Done. Gotta go. I headed outside shortly after that to get some fresh air. Side note: Beijing has done a remarkable job of cleaning up the air for the Olympics.

We took off back to the hotel where I proceeded to fight nausea and stomach cramps for the next few hours. I finally started to fall asleep thinking the worst was over until at about 6:00 am. I found out that all the descriptions of food poisoning symptoms we heard in Food Micro class were not exaggerations. I will not go into further detail because nobody needs that kind of information. I COULD NOT believe this was happening. This was the Great Wall day. The only thing I was looking forward to in Beijing and I was in danger of not making it out of the hotel bathroom. So I did what any desperate traveller would do - loaded up on drugs, ate nothing, and hoped for a miracle. Well it worked. The drugs were my miracle.



The wall was amazing and much steeper than Peter and I imagined it to be.

There are other flatter parts but according to our guide, most foreigners want this part because they want to conquer the hill. I made it about 2/3 of the way to the top before I ran out of energy and the will to conquer. Peter went to the top of course and snapped these shots.

I was just happy I didn't have to stay in the hotel room. We skipped the Ming Tombs that afternoon for a full recovery period.

The next day was departure day - otherwise known as the 31 hours before I see a bed again. We had some time in the morning to head down to Old Beijing to see the hutongs or walled courtyard alleys that once populated most of Nanjing. Currently, many are being torn down to "clean-up" before the Olympics.



One million people have been moved or displaced to make sure everything is pretty for the Olympics. The picture below is the new ParaOlympic Villiage under construction where the hutongs once stood. I'm glad we wandered down there for a last look at these historical buildings.




Our departing shot was taken inside the front doors of the spectacular new airport built - yes, for the Olympics. It is a stunning piece of architecture.

I think Beijing is going to surprise the world. They are putting a gargantuan effort into putting on a show. I hope they do well because they already feel as if the world is against them. Maybe we could show them that we want to be friends and not enemies. And as friends maybe we can help them through some of their issues if we can. I, for one, wouldn't want to be enemies with them. They will be a super power one day and when that day comes, I would like to say "ni hao" with the confidence that we are on friendly terms.

Last comment: I still have lots of neat pictures so as I go through, I will post them. Check back if you are interested and thanks for following along. Knowing that I had people reading actually made me pay closer attention to content, pictures and my daily events. It was fun. Zai jian!

Up the Yangtze

Other than Tibet (which of course didn't happen), the three day cruise up the Yangtze was the second big highlight on our itinerary. We were a little apprehensive about a cruise since neither of us thought we would like being confined to a boat for three days. We also weren't sure if we would like all of the group activities and timed meals. As it turned out, we had a great time. The scenery from the boat was mesmerizing. We sat for hours on the balcony (beer in hand) watching the cliffs and ships go by (perhaps not on this particular day because of the fog/smog).





I had in my mind that this Yangtze trip would be the last time the Three Gorges would be in their natural state before the largest hydro project in the world, the Three Gorges Dam, closed its gates to change it forever. In actual fact, the river was already transformed by a 250ft rise from its original level. There is still another 60 feet to go, for a total of 175 meters (approx. 525ft).




The river was no less stunning and might even be prettier because the water wasn't as stirred up with mud. But the river has changed the lives of 1.5-2 million people who were displaced by the flooding, mostly farmers and fishermen. The exact number depends on which source you believe. Many of the farmers have either moved to higher ground or moved to the cities along the river. There are many pros and cons to this project but when you see the pollution caused by the number of factories along the river, there is no question that they need a better alternative to coal.






The Three Gorge Project, once completed, will supply 22,500 megawatts of power. In comparison, the largest MB hydro station is about 1,300 MW.


We stopped to see a few cultural highlights along the way including Fengdu or Ghost City.







You see a lot of temples in China but never ones for the afterlife. It had a whole new look to it (black) and focused on what happened to bad spirits such as these ones:









Good incentive to behave I would say. Ouch.


We also visited an area known for their "hanging coffins". The ancient people would somehow find a way to bury their ancestors in the crevices of sheer cliffs hundreds of feet from either the top of the cliff or from the river. Some of the coffins were removed due to the rising water, but some coffins still exist.

(look for the little wooden coffin and sticks to hold it up)












And for the final stage of the trip we passed through the locks of the grand project - the dam itself. It takes 3 1/2 hours to pass through 4 of the 5 locks. The 5th lock will be in use once the project has been completed. They pass through the locks at night, since it takes so long. It is a bit freaky to be locked into a concrete cell with five other boats and dropped 20meters, with a wall of water above you.




We went to sleep after the first lock probably due to the high co2 levels in the lock from all of the boats churning out exhaust.




The next morning we had a look around the dam. Once again, it is hard to see because of the smog but you can tell it is pretty big. I really don't know how people get blue sky pictures for the dam (as seen in many of their promotional material). It seemed to me that we were always in a "haze".









It is 2.3 km long and 40 metres wide at the top. I hope they got a good price on concrete because 27.2 million cubic metres of concrete was used. Pretty amazing piece of human effort. China can do some amazing things.

Last stop...Beijing and the Great Wall.