欢迎 (Welcome)

If you would like to start from the beginning of the story, please go to the first post, then click on "Newer Post" at the bottom of each page to continue the chronological sequence. While the trip did not turn out as I expected, it made for a very memorable adventure. Travelling in China is not the easiest thing to do on an impulse! I hope you enjoy the read.

Yin and Yang

Jia Na Da is Chinese for Canada, and the characters chosen fortunately have an appropriate meaning: add, catch, big — thus, you could sort of read it as a big country that welcomes new people. America is Mei Guo, the beautiful kingdom, but be very careful in picking the right tone and character for "Mei" as it could also mean blind or imperceptive. It seems like every sound in Chinese has a good and bad meaning. Someone told me that Chinese is a terrible language for writing laws because it is vague and open to loose interpretation. Things are rarely black and white, just shades of grey. China certainly has been an eye opener for me, and whatever preconceptions and stereotypes I had of it and its culture have been broken, yet really understanding it remains even more nebulous to grasp than before.

I had almost the entire day to prepare for my departure since my flight was in the late afternoon. I carefully packed, had breakfast and took a leisurely stroll before checking out.

It was a challenge returning to the motel last night because I did not know they truncated the metro line at night. A rather strange thing for them to stop running the subway to the airport after 9pm, and I pitied several clueless travellers at the end of the line desperate to get to their flight. The attendants at metro station were not that helpful either, and gave me very vague instructions how and where I could take a bus. The private taxis were out to feed on the situation at the exit, asking more than $20 to get people to the airport when it could have cost next to nothing on the train. I fended off one insistent driver who offered a "discount" to take me to my motel for $10, determined I was going to find the bus come hell or high water. This being a new part of town, some roads were unlit so I just started walking in the dark to where it was brighter. I walked almost a kilometre, asking a few people where I could take the right bus. I had a metro map with me to point at the station I wanted to get to, which was still about 10 kilometres away. After passing 3 different bus stops, a helpful man finally took me to the right stop, but he himself was not sure how close to the motel the bus would drop me off. I was lucky I got to within two blocks and it only cost me about 40 cents.

Getting to the airport today was really easy by comparison and I got there four hours in advance, enough time to grab a nice lunch and look at the numerous duty-free but profit-full shops. There really wasn't that much I was interested in getting save for tea, which I bought a bit of. Quite a few weary looking people waiting for the flight to Toronto. I sat down beside a man with a exasperated look in his face and said to him, "You look like you are just about ready to go home". He immediately bubbled up and chatted with me until it was time to board.

And so ends my Chinese jaunt. "May you live in interesting times" they say. As it continues to increase its economic muscle, some people might be mistaken in believing that China is out to dominate and control the world.
I leave this perplexing country with an impression that China struggles merely to control itself.

Hey, I brought back enough vacuum-packed pickled duck feet for everyone.
 Let me know when you want yours.

Back to the Future

My long train ride came to an end at Shanghai South station, ironically the very station I first got misdirected to when I was trying to leave the city. I joked to myself that Namba Woman would be on the platform waiting for me. It was odd returning to this place which now had a bit of familiarity — I whipped out my old transit smart card and transferred onto the metro system with confidence.

I booked a cheap motel in the new outskirts of town near the airport, a few blocks from the metro line so as to make my departure as effortless as possible. The place was quite new and clean and across from a shopping area that just opened. One thing that is remarkable in China is that they have no inhibitions when it comes to contemporary architecture. Some of the buildings are bold statements and experimental, others are weird imitations or combinations of historic styles. The mix of shapes, textures and patterns can be raucous but somewhat fitting to the frantic pace of life here.

I made sure I had a buffer day in Shanghai just in case something went awry. Since everything was OK, it was a chance to visit Expo 2010 again and see the parts of the vast site that I missed the first time around. I got off to a relaxed start after breakfast and set off for a different gate this time. I went to a few more theme pavilions and was wowed by some of the state-of-the-art projection systems that they used.

Some of it was like walking into a Sci-Fi movie, and some futuristic products were on display like e-paper, a flexible, rollable screen.

I visited a relatively calm corner of the fair where different cities offered case studies in making their urban communities more sustainable. Everything was presented with rose coloured glasses, but it is nice to get a shot of optimism sometimes.

Interesting concept: with the development of ultra-capacity batteries, what if all our electric cars became storage units for energy, drawing electricity during periods of low demand, then releasing it back to the grid when demand is high,  if the car is not in use. Your car could end up being the auxiliary battery for your house.

Green roofs were big at the fair.

The hard sell on softwood

Great Danes on bikes

This building had a green wall and a waterfall to control its temperature

The lineups were way too long for me to go into the GM pavilion and its take on the future of  personal transportation

At dusk the site takes on another personality as buildings become liquid with light:

High feed train

I had a long train ride ahead of me. The high speed railway from Yichang to Shanghai is still under construction which will probably cut travel time down to 8 hours, but for now it is a much slower zig-zagging local train that takes about 24 hours. I went in search of provisions for the journey, several meals worth of instant noodles and snacks.

While there is nothing of note in Yichang, it is relatively quiet and orderly for a Chinese city. In my search for a supermarket, I actually stumbled upon a Walmart right smack in the middle of downtown. Quite a busy place, it was strange to set foot on a piece of America, Chinese style. In many of the department stores here, you first look at a sample of what you want, then get a salesperson to write up an invoice which you take to a cashier, pay for it and get a receipt which you bring back to the salesperson to claim your purchase. It was a simple consolation to skip that tedious process.

One of the interesting trends I noticed here is people walking around carrying double-walled glass flasks of tea. I've been looking around for one and Walmart had a good selection of them without a pushy salesperson hassling me. I've gotten to appreciate some excellent teas here, to the point that I have not missed having coffee on days I haven't had any. There is an amazing variety of tea, and some cost more per hundred grams than a bottle of expensive wine. One kind I like look like pellets when dry but unfurl to whole leaves after steeping in hot water.

The Yichang train station was amazingly quiet. They even put me through the VIP waiting room with cushy leather sofas as there was only a few of us boarding the single car of soft sleepers on the train.  I shared my sleeper cabin with three elderly Chinese travellers with whom I tried to communicate as best as possible. It is interesting how much of Chinese life revolves around food. The characters to convey the concept of population consist of 人口 , visually "person" and "mouth" suggesting the number of people you have to feed. The motherly woman in the cabin seemed concerned about my meagre provisions, and kept on giving me extras like a hardboiled egg or an orange to supplement my noodles. At any rate, it is hard to starve on the train, as there is a dining car and the attendants constantly rove around with carts with snacks or meals to sell.

The train chugged though the countryside past rice fields and vegetable farms, stopping at the major towns. Along one stretch, old buildings and homes along the track had red spray paint marks which seemed to indicate that they were about to be demolished. Elsewhere, huge numbers of concrete feet were being erected for the high-speed railway that will eventually march between Shanghai and Chongqing and beyond.

Monkey see, Yangze do

The Yangtze is China's longest River (and third longest in the world) — it tumbles from the roof of Tibet, flows through the heart of China, and finds its way to the sea at Shanghai.  At least 400 million people live in its watershed,which produces almost half of the country's agricultural products. Along the middle of its route, the river carves a tight steep valley through the central mountains, creating China's famous Three Gorges.

Since my boat was not leaving until later in the evening, I checked out of the "Xi-Er-Dun" as late as possible enjoying the comfy room for as long as I could. One odd downside to the place was they charged for internet, a steep 10 bucks for the first hour. I declined being ripped off.

Although I normally shy away from touristy cruises, this time around it was a welcome relief to be in an all inclusive package. About half the passengers are foreigners -- Americans, Brits, Austrailians -- but I am surprised to find out I'm the only from Canada on board. I get a kick out of listening to a big group of New Zealanders of Chinese descent speaking with heavy Kiwi accents and not being able to speak the local language just like me. Since I paid a relative last-minute bargain for this cruise I have to share a cabin, and my roomie was a Chinese man who unfortuantely spoke no English.

There is a slew of activites as we sail, from Tai Chi lessons in the morning, to lectures on Chinese language, culture and traditions in the afternoon, and at night the crew puts on quite a show. There are several off-ship excursions, including a visit to gargantuan Three Gorges Dam.

During meals I was assigned to a table with a bunch of British and Austrailian tourists who were all travelling independently. Other tables were occupied by people on larger packaged tours. Our group hit it off quite well, and the conversation was always non stop and filled with humour.

Our first port of call was the City of Ghosts near Fengdu, one of the large communites that was completely displaced by rising waters of the new dam's reservoir. The relocation figure is astounding: 1.3 million people had to be moved, and brand-new cities and towns had to be built to accomodate them. The touristy spot they toured us trough was a mixture of old and new temples, consolidated into a dense attraction not unlike some of the contrived heritage villages we have in North America. It was fun nonetheless, and it offered a glimpse of some of the old traditions and beliefs in the area.

This is Yama, the judge who decides whether to send you to heaven or hell

Everything was easily accessible for the next few days, albeit for a bit of a premium that put prices on par to what they are back home. I got a much needed haircut on board, and a few fancy drinks at the bar while meeting other passengers. Suddenly it felt a cushy relaxing vacation.

As part of the cruise, on the second afernoon they piled us into smaller boats which  took us into the narrower Lesser Gorges where we got into even smaller wooden boats. Apparently before the dam, this excursion would have been like shooting the rapids with boatmen using bamboo poles to push the boats upstream, but now it is a tame verson on flat water. The rising water level has made more of the upper gorges accessible, however. The steep forests are populated with small monkeys who swing down to the water to drink. Old tribes living in the area long ago had the custom of hanging coffins up on the cliff caves to bring their dead closer to heaven, and a few were visible from the boat.

A stroke of fortune saw the sun come out on cue as we reached the most scenic part of the route. This is apparently be the best time of year to visit — the  summer brings unberably hot and humid weather, while it is constantly foggy later in the winter. The scenery is stunning, like walking into a traditional Chinese painting.

On the last day, we approached Yichang and the big dam. We were bused into the dam site, passing brand new towns that were still being finished up. The communities look like orderly versions of traditional villages, the main streets lined with little shops selling everything from raw metal to quick meals. They are typical of Asia; someone might be welding up a wagon in one shop, and other people might be slurping bowls of noodles next door. The streets are always filled with noise and smells, and people become immune to it all.

The Three Gorges Dam is an impressive piece of infrastructure — the huge investment is rationalized by the government as floods in the lower Yangze have caused billions in damage and hundreds of thousands of lives in the past. It was also supposed to supply 15% of China's electricity when it was planned, but with all the rapid growth, it will now only satisfy 3% at the most. These and other facts are systematically drilled into every visitor by the official tour guides. The dam is obviously a point of pride for the Chinese, and thousands travel out here everyday to see it for themselves.

The Goddess Peak

Our final destination is dock outside of Yichang, and while the large tour groups have their buses to pick them up and other independent travellers have pre-arranged transport, I am left to the gouging taxi drivers waiting outside like a pack of hyenas in for the kill. I have no choice but pay Y100 (about $15) for the ride into the city since the dock is quite remote and I have no maps to navigate with if I biked. My stint in the High Life ends in a bumpy ride on a pothole riddled road to my $30 hotel room.