Tuesday, August 22, 2000
Dear All,
I am now in Wuhan, having just disembarked from our cruise on the Yangzi River. For years I have dreamed of seeing the Three Gorges and now that fantasy has been realized!
It was a fabulous experience. The entire trip from Chongqing to Wuhan is about 700 miles, about 120 of which are the gorges. They are appealing for a number of reasons. First, of course, is the physical beauty of craggy peaks coming straight down hundreds of feet into roiling waters. Although the scenery is totally different, the grandeur reminds me of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.
Those roiling waters are part of the romance, too. The Chinese fascination with the gorges may be related to their impenetrability as well as their beauty. Until the 1950s when the government dynamited the most dangerous rocks and rapids, the passage through the Three Gorges was a very treacherous journey. In the days of small wooden junks, boats were hauled upstream by hundreds of trackers, men who were harnessed together, literally like animals, to make progress west. We could see the paths on the side of the river that the trackers used.
There is also a significant body of poetry written about different places in the Three Gorges, and many of these poems are among the classics of Chinese literature. Many classical paintings, too, of misty mountains and rushing waters are based on this area. And finally, this is the longest river in China (and the third longest in the world) that has been a highway for commerce, a source of water for farming and fishing, and part of the self-definition of the Chinese people.
We also spent several hours touring the Three Gorges Dam site. I have no comparison with huge dam projects in other parts of the world but this looked damn big! The official reasons for the dam are flood control, hydroelectric power, and smoother navigation, but as I said in my previous message there is a lot of national pride involved as well.
I look forward to sharing pictures of the gorges and the dam construction but I have the feeling that I haven't been able to capture the grandeur of either one.
I have so much more to say--about the experience of the gorges, about the moral dilemmas of tourism in a developing country, about the tyranny of photography. But maybe in the next message. Right now we are leaving for the train station for a 16 hour journey to Taiyuan in Shanxi Province. Our local guide was confirming that in fact we are taking the train to Taiyuan. When I nodded and said, "Yes, that's right" she responded with a certain incredulity, "WHY?" My explanation of small cities and ancient temples seemed totally unconvincing to her.
I don't know what the technology infrastructure in Shanxi will be so this is probably farewell for a while.
Cheers,
Kathryn
See more images of the Yangzi River and the dam on photo pages Pt. 2 and Pt. 3
