Down the Yangtze Posted May 21, 2004 at 12:00 am

I woke up at 6:30 A.M. The shower was not terribly pleasant as the water ranged from cold to very hot and even the flow was inconsistent. Breakfast was good (very Western) with eggs, sausage, bacon, watermelon, pineapple, and rolls. At 9:30 A.M., we began our first in a series of two lectures by Professor Wang about the Three Gorges. Professor Wang is a funny Chinese man who speaks English and seems well-traveled and rather spry for his age. After the lecture the day was pretty much free. We were delayed in our departure, but we eventually did get underway at about 10:00 A.M. I spent some time on the bow of the boat taking in scenery, shooting pictures and enjoying the breeze. I got a few good group photos. We had lunch at about 12:30 P.M. before resuming activities. I alternated between sitting outside on the bow and writing in my journal inside.

We reached Feng Du, the Ghost City, a little after 5 P.M. We deboarded the boat, rode buses into the shell of the old city, and split off into groups. We rode cable cars in pairs of two up the mountain side to visit a series of three temples. One was a Buddhist temple, one was a Taoist temple, and I didn’t catch what the other was. I got separated from the group for a bit after I wandered off from the store to shoot photos. The store had some neat weapons but they were more or less the same quality as those at the Great Wall (i.e., low quality), so I wasn’t interested. The shrine is reputed to have three challenges to determine if a person is good. The first is a set of three bridges. A good person is supposed to be able to pass over the slippery middle bridge in an even number of steps. The outer two bridges are for health and wealth and are for the return trip. The second challenge consists of a very heavy (~400 lbs.) semicircular stone in a stone track or groove curving up into a pedestal in the middle. A good man is supposed to be able to get the stone onto the pedestal. None of our group could do it, but a local man showed us how it was done. The third and final challenge was to stand on a spherical stone in the ground and balance on one foot. The foot to use is based on gender: a man should stand on the left, a woman on the right. We rode the cable cars back down to the base of the mountain where they had group photos prepared to sell to us at 20 RMB ($2.44) each. They didn’t get many takers until they lowered the price. I bought one just to get change for a 100 RMB ($12.18) bill. I have 90 RMB ($10.96) left until I change money again. I’ve made it this far on only $80, which I think is pretty good. We left Feng Du at about 8 P.M.

We were treated to the captain’s welcome dinner at about 8:30 P.M. The captain gave a short speech and then we all toasted with very small glasses of a very sweet red wine. The most interesting things (dishes) to me were a very good rice cake and a beaten egg whites soup. Special entertainment was provided after dinner. Members of the ship’s crew performed about a half dozen different ritual dances. A game using volunteers: three from our group and two from the Japanese group. The game was a variation of musical chairs with the participants looking for an object in the room at the end of the music. A hilarious older Japanese man won and was awarded with a wall scroll bearing a poem in Chinese somehow derived from the man’s name.

After the entertainment was over, John taught me the card game Pitch. Pitch is a four-person, team-based card game. Sean and I played against John and Janell. We won on a gutsy, and lucky, bid by me.