I awoke about 7 am, dressed in shorts and went to the upper deck (one deck up from our cabin) for Tai Chi lessons. It was good exercising, especially the stretching. The "master" who taught us was so nimble and it was fun to participate.
After showering, we went to the breakfast buffet. Then the ship's orientation and safety drill - nothing like in the US - we never even put on life vests!
David taught us mah jong. (June would be proud of us). And we can't wait to play again. We learned quickly - building the wall, "eating", "bumping" and "hulah" (that's what you yell when you win). I won 2 ot of 3 of the games we played. They tell us that Mah Jong was invented in Wanzhou (new name of the city) - the old name of the city is Wanxian. Wanzhou has 1.7M inhabitants. It is so amazing how they have demolished so many buildings by the river to make way for the flood waters from the Three Gorges Dam. This will be exciting to see this as we cruise to the dam area. The water has already been raised 148 meters and it will go to 172 meters by 2009. They have built so many new high bridges to accommodate the dam waters. The old bridges have been or will be torn down. We had a huge buffet lunch and the left for a tour of Wanzhou. "Nice" was our local guide. She explained that 1.2M people have been relocated in China by the government due to the Three Gorges Project, 250,000 of then in Wanzhou alone.
We visited a relocation facility - 8 buildings, each with 8 floors with homes built for families impacted by the dam. It was somewhat sad. We met a family - The man was 68 and the woman 65. They were farmers and were forced to move. They are paid 100 REM (about $13) per month by the government. There was a huge board on one of the buildings where you must register any children born. Each couple has a number and you must report any children born to the government officials and they post it publically on this board. Each couple is allowed to have only one child.
The relocation neighborhood has the typical tourist market too with everyone hawking their wares. We went to a museum and saw some artifacts and learned about the hanging coffins. The coffins were either put in caves in the mountains or on wooden posts and the coffins hung. They believe that this was done to honor the mountain and the region.
Then we went to a huge market area near the dock. They had lots of vegetables, fruists, and other things for sale. Many people were playing "Beat the Landlord" which the Chinese just love to play. One grup was playing Mah Jong too.
We went back to the dock - they took us back down to the boat on a ralied vehicle on cables that go to a floating dock. As the river rises over the next 2 years, the dock will rise, the water will cover the rails and this will all still work even with the rising water.
We took a great map and tot up when we set sail again. We went to Valentino - the lunge for a drink (teeny tiny pours!) and watched a demonstration on silk embroidery. At 6 pm David hosted a cocktail party for us on the sun deck. We had teased David about losing 3 of 4 games to the Americans and it appeared that he didn't like this. So instead of talking about him losing, I focused on complimenting him on being such a good teacher - he was quite pleased.
We saw a beautiful sunset while sailing the Yangtze tonight and then went to the Captain's Welcome Reception. The Farewell Reception is tomorrow night!!!! We had a glass of awful wine and heard the Captain say a few things in Chines which Willie, the Activities Director, translated.
Then we went to dinner and had another huge Chinese dinner. After dinner we went back to Valentinos to the Crew Talent Show. This was interesting. They sang and danced in colorful costumes - some very good. Some of the women had very high cheek bone structure and di such beautiful facial expressions. Jack and Lillian along with Belinda and Paul did a part where they had to see who could make the longest line on the stage with things that they had on their body. Lillian was in shock but she and John won as John had a belt and many many papers in his pockets. Later, Tim, Sally, and I did the Tai Chi exercise wtih the master. At the end we did some karoke - David did "Yesterday" again, Tim did "My Way", and I did "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina". Tim and I then went to bed and slep like a baby all night. The alcohol at the reception, wine at dinner, and drinks at the show helped put me to sleep!
Larry
No comments:
Post a Comment