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The China Chronicles Part 3: The Yangtze River Cruise
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Anonymous user Tue Nov 30, 1999 00:00:00 PST
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0 responses 0 comments One of the big highlights on our journey through China was the river cruise.  After spending three days in Shanghai, we boarded a plane and flew to Wuhan.  We went on a one day tour of the city and then boarded our ship to cruise up the Yangtze River.
The Yangtze is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world. It is the heart of China.
The Chinese depend upon navigation on the rivers to transport people, fuel, food and goods. There is a saying that says, “Everything flows down the Yangtze.” Indeed, there are many cruise ships, vessels hauling coal — the major fuel source of the country — and cargo ships transporting boxcar-sized containers to huge receiving docks. 
Due to all the traffic, factories dumping tons of commercial waste (prior to new legislation, which bans this practice), and people doing laundry and emptying their “honey pots” into the water, the river is badly polluted. We didn’t travel on blue water until after we passed through the Three Gorges Dam.
During the six days of our cruise, we became acquainted with our crew. David was the boat’s activities’ director, lecturer and Tai Chi Master.
Filled with enthusiasm, he arranged the evening’s entertainment, conducted lengthy lectures on a wide range of topics, fielded many probing questions, and conducted daily Tai Chi classes. 
On the fourth deck, where the entertainment room was located, were several artisans who sold their wares and gave demonstrations.
A woman who was a fourth-generation silk painter, a group of sisters who were from a family of embroiders, and a man who was a calligraphy expert and also a third-generation pearl farmer were among them. The prices for their creations were higher on the ship than we found later on the trip, but the quality was unsurpassed.
Since travelers flying within China are limited to one check-in piece of luggage, we were limited in what we could pack. Fortunately, the laundry service available on the ship did a great job and was reasonably priced. Other services included massage and acupuncture sessions.
A one hour massage—given to fully-clothed passengers covered with a piece of thin fabric — was only $35! For this passenger, it was wonderful! So many hours of traveling had brought its share of knots and aching muscles, but after only one hour with the masseur, I felt like a new woman.
While we sat on the outer deck with the breeze blowing through our hair, David gave interesting commentary on the sights.
We saw rice fields with workers trudging behind their water buffalo, endless rapeseed fields of yellow and mountainsides terraced with hand-placed stone retaining walls to maximize on the farmable portions of land.
The many modern bridges crossing the Yangtze are like works of art or giant stringed instruments of blue and white. They have been built in the last 30 years, primarily through joint venture projects.
Foreign companies have built many of the structures in the country in exchange for being allowed to sell their goods and services in China. The practice seems to have been profitable for everyone and is bringing the country into the 21st century.
Most of our days on the ship included a day tour for a couple of hours and cruising on our large 5-Star ship for the rest of the day. At dinner, David would talk about the next day’s activities and in the evening, there was entertainment — albeit too loud to be acoustically pleasant.
When we would return to our room in the evening, there was a printed itinerary for the next day.
“Small Boat Tour” appeared on the top of one these papers.
David had lectured about how the Boatmen in ancient times had to pull barges up the river when the current was too strong or the water too shallow. We had seen pictures of the men, clad in loincloth-like garb, who used to line the shores in groups of a hundred or more to pull the boats past the unnavigable portions of the river.
But nothing prepared us for the day’s excursion.
In the morning, we docked alongside a double-decker sightseeing boat. It was definitely smaller than our five-decked ship, so I believed this to be the boat to which the itinerary referred.
Perhaps, I thought, it was simply a matter of pride that the crew of the cruise ship would call the other boat small, because it could easily handle our group of more than 200. 
We disembarked our ship and boarded the smaller boat for about an hour, seeing lush hillsides covered with bamboo and other native plants.
Monkeys sat and stared at us from rocks while we intruded on their domain.
It had been fairly windy, so I had looked through the windows at the sights. I had been sitting facing the stern — the back of the boat — so I had no idea what to expect when we finally docked.
Instead of being back at our cruise ship, we were looking at some of the most rickety little boats I have ever seen. These were the small boats!
The boat captains passed out life jackets, which we gladly donned. This was to be an adventure. Each little boat’s captain wore a leather jacket, sweater and slacks, which seemed a little nicer than would have been necessary and which made me wonder where all those leather jackets came from.
Did Wilson’s House of Suede send a boat filled with leather jackets to this remote section of the country?
The captains used a pole to propel the boats up the Shennong Stream.  It was quiet, natural and wild — beautifully untouched.
When the water became shallow — less than a foot deep — from somewhere in the surrounding brush, out popped men dressed in Speedos and sport coats! What a look! They wore nifty macramé sandals on their feet, which completed a rather unique fashion statement. 
Each of the Boatmen wore a sling made out of fabric that hung over one shoulder and connected to a rope. The lead Boatman’s rope was a long one that was secured to the boat. Each of his three or four team members had shorter ropes, which ended in a tog made of carved bone.
When it was time to pull the boats, the team members wove their togs on to the main rope and then, as a group, they were able to heave the boats upstream.
The togs made it easy to add or remove members and did not appear to damage the main rope. The system was ingenious.
When we were in water only 2 inches deep, they turned our boat around. We needed to wait for the last boat to arrive since the stream was only wide enough for one boat to pass at a time.
While we were sitting in the boats waiting to return, more men showed up with bamboo baskets filled with trinkets.
I bought three bracelets made of carved rock turtles for $10. Someone in our boat bought bone with ink drawings and someone else bartered for a book which appeared very old.
Of course, it’s necessary to remember that our comprehension of old is not theirs. Here, old is a building which has stood for 200 years.
In China, it would need to be 10 times that age to achieve the status of “old.” 
Everyone was happy with their purchases and even more pleased with the tales that we could tell about the circumstances surrounding our acquiring them.
The best souvenirs are often ones that come in the form of pictures.
Mine is a photo of the Boatmen in Speedos and sport coats.
Only in China could you find such a sight.

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