Port Townsend Peeps - The World's First Virtual/Living City

Hello friends!

My dad and I just disembarked from the river cruise boat this morning and are waiting to board a plane to Xi’an. The cruise took us through the Three Gorges Dam and along roughly 600 km of river, ending in a city called Chongqing. THe cruise boat carried about 300 passengers, 90% of which were Chinese, we were two of about 12 westerners. The three gorges dam was our first stop. It was impressive and imposing, though the fog (or smog) made  it seem like an eerie figure in the distance, somewhat like a ghost structure. It would not photograph well. Our boat later entered the gigantic locks, 5 levels of concrete and steel that takes 4 hours to get through. The locks comprise a level change of over 300 feet. Its the ultimate expression of man’s control of nature. Once we were through the locks, we entered into the first of the 3 gorges. The landscape is characterized by sheer granite cliffs rising out of the water, and odd shaped mountains that have bulbous rock formations and caves of all sizes and depths. The water ranges in color from milky chocolate brown, to murky dishwater green.(its more silty than polluted, they told us). The fog/ smog followed us through this area but was more diaphanous and dreamy, than eerie and industrial.

The scenery is utterly magnificient, and humbling. There are coffins that the ancient Bai people perched into caves that seem completely inaccessible, hundreds of feet up. Its still a mystery as to how they did it. After the 3 gorges section of the river, you enter into a zone that is characterized by small terraced farms, hillside smoky concrete cities, beautiful new red and silver suspension bridges, lonely Pagodas, and the new shorelines of relocated villages, whose ghosts lie submerged seventy feet below the water (dismantled for navigation purposes). THe dam was built to control flooding, the number one reason, the Chinese people maintain. So far it only supplies 3% of the country’s electricity. though its the largest project of its type, in the world. They had to relocate 1.3 million people, which is not an obstacle to the Chinese . Its hard to immediately see their reasoning for such a gigantic undertaking, but I’m not used to their metrics.

The cruise down the river has given me such an idispensible perspective on China, I recommend it as the number one thing to do, if you go to China.

I better let your eyes rest now, so in several days I will try to find another smoky, hidden, internet cafe with one hundred computers, 90% of which are being used to play the same internet video game. ITs an experience within itself.

Until soon!

Erin