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English Version 52
Friday 23.05.08
Some place on the Yangtze River.
I sleep from 22.30 to almost 6.30 and wake up Burghard as promised. We
eat breakfast and talk. I couln`t have had a better companion. He`s from
Kiel and I`m from Copenhagen. There`s not much difference neither in
circumstances nor in attitudes.
Then we have to go again, upstream Jiu Wan River. How long does it take?
2 hours.
It`s raining so I have to go back to get my cycling jacket. We have
rescue jackets put on. It turns out that we`re put into some long dragon
head`ed canooes. There are paddles! But also a motor at the back, quite
strong. We have to paddle for a distance (but the motor is still running).
We reach a spot where one more side river through a narrow gorge joins
the first. Walk up the gorge on a ponton bridge. The gorge is narrowing.
When it`s 3 m`s wide and 50? m`s high we enter some stairs. Walk on
wooded iron stairs and bridges and one time even through a natural? path
through the mountain. Up through a kind of tropic rain forest on almost
vertical rocks. As has been the case so many times it`s the most
unexpected that gives the deepest impression. The nature is
extraordinary and I don`t see the 100 Chinese turists in their many
coloured raincoats bought for 5 yuan and all their pictures of
themselves in front of the attractions. As usual the heights doesn`t
affect me here in nature but in Metropolitan Tower on the 31st floor I
forced myself to taking a picture out an open window - just one!
When we`re back down we are sat down at a scene on the river. The
Chinese loudspeakers are excellent. The sound is much too loud but what
else could you expect in a noisy country like this. It`s probably
something from Chinese history or mythology we`re watching but beside
the dancing I have time to write my diary. But I wonder if all Chinese
have a damaged hearing? How can they stand the sound?
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| Umbrellas and coloured raincoats | The sound was LOUD | On our way back |
Back again we get tickets for bus no.3 when we get to the dam. This
ship is not going through the ship locks, we`re going by bus to Yichang!
Burghard and I have become very good friends this couple of days. It`s
in the air that we`ll meet again. Now I have a place to stay if I get to
Berlin and he if he goes to Denmark.
The dam isn`t totally forgotten even we`re not going through the ship
locks. First we go by one bus to the dam where 3 Gorges Tourist Company
takes over and we go by another bus to the viewing site. It`s so misty
that we cannot see the end of the dam, but I`m used to this kind of
weather so I don`t care much. Take a couple of hopeless pictures. Then
we have to go down to a bridge and cross to the other side, from where
we probably can see the whole dam. In the meantime it starts to rain so
there`s not much to see. An old man must have entered the fence cause
he`s standing fishing under his Chinese hat. There are covered benches
and we sit a bit sleepy and enjoy Yangtze in the rain.
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| Picture from the viewpoint at 3 Gorges Dam | The dam itself disappears in rain and mist |
Every time I get into a bus and the "talking megaphone" starts I get so sleepy. When we get back to the first bus I fall asleep and sleep all the way to Yichang where the bus station is a bit chaotic. Burghard and I are not going with the ssame bus. We haven`t booked at the same time eigher. There`s just time to exchange tel. no.`s then my bus leaves. 45 min`s later he calls. His bus was full so he won`t be there until one hour later than me. I cannot hear him even I put a finger in my right ear and go back in the bus. But he spells the name of a hotel we`ve talked about from LP, I think I got the most important parts right. Anyway we have to part in the morning, but in a better way I hope. Three Gorges Dam with its 24 generators each producing 700MW (when it`s totally finished) is in the outskirts of the mountains so in no time I`m back into the flat country. Here are many of a new type of houses with two stories here in the Hebei province and I see fields more than 100 m`s long, that`s new.
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| "The churning yellow megaphone" |
When we get to Wuhan the driver is uncertain where I have to get off.
I`m wondering too. Wuhan is a mix of Hankou, Wuchang and Hanyang and the
railway station is according toLP in Wuchang while the hotel we`ve
talked about is close to another station in Hankou. We stop and the
driver wants to see my ticket. It doesn`t tell him anything because it
just says Wuhan. I just thought i`d go as far as the bus went but when
he finally asks: "Ni yao qu na ge di fang?" I speak the magic words: "Huoche
zhan" - railway station. And now everything`s fine. He was just worrying
if he`d take me too long and we apparently get to the train station.
While I`m waiting for Burghard I walk to tha station and with the help
of some young Chinese I buy a ticket for Beijing tomorrow night at
21.09. Then I`ll be in Beijing at 6 in the morning. On my way back I
find a place to eat and to make it really efficient I find a cheap hotel
and have just entered my room and got "kai shui" as they call the hot
water here, when B. phones to tell he`s arriving in a few minutes. I
walk downstairs to meet him and later we buy a couple of beers and sit
together for a while.