Yangtse River - Three Gorges

10th November 2008

Emperor Renzo reporting:

As you will see from the photos I have now been promoted to Emperor of China and we are about to enter a new dynasty: an early one was called the Qin (pronounced 'Chin') dynasty - mine will henceforth be appropriately known as the Nosey dynasty. Although I am not in a position to match the 20,000-odd concubines who were at the disposal of the more recent Qing emperor, I do have several young university lady students who are at least prepared to cook Chinese tucker for me.

Last week I spent several glorious days on a "Three Gorges" tour up the Yangtse river. The boat was a 5-star luxury ship with a capacity of 206 passengers and 110 crew and staff, yet the number of passengers was just 47!: one Aussie (me), a group of 5 Chinese and 41 Americans.

You can imagine we were spoilt rotten: not only did I not have to share a cabin and private deck with anyone but one night, when another ship docked on my side of the boat with its engine running, I complained that I couldn't sleep - their solution was simply to provide me another cabin for the night on the other side of the ship. Whenever I left my cabin (several times per day) the bed was made, towels replaced and fresh drinks placed in the fridge.

The entrances to each of the three Gorges were quite spectacular. On the third day we boarded a smaller boat to visit the "Lesser Gorges" and finally into a Sandpan which took us up the even-smaller "Mini Gorges". Whilst all the gorges were gorgeous (excuse the pun), by the end of the day we were all gorged out; the solution was to return to the ship to gorge ourselves on the sumptious evening dinner.

The water level is now only 3 metres short of its maximum height of 175 metres above sea level. We also had an extensive tour of the now-completed dam - the largest in the world size wise but not electricity-capacity wise.

As every night they showed a special movie I mentioned to the cruise director (Ernie Kemm) that I had seen a movie documentary called "Up the Yangtse" just before leaving Australia. As I was explaining what the documentary was about he said "yes I know, I and Campbell Hur (the main on-board guide) were in the movie!" Apparently the movie was filmed on our boat's sister ship the "Anna". He then went on to tell me what became of the young Chinese girl whose very poor family had been displaced by the rising waters of the Yangtse river. Mind you, from what I saw most of the people were simply accommodated further up the mountains with what I would call spectacular million-dollar views (OK as a remote holiday house for the rich, but not for poor working families).

With all the American's on board, and more televisions than passengers, there was a lot of interest in the U.S. elections. I had a semi-heated discussion with one lady who took offense at my statement of "from a distance, I couldn't understand how the American people came to re-elect Bush for a second term!" Fortunately a lady psychologist, of an American couple whom I had earlier befriended, came to my rescue with a personal scathing attack (in her view) of the Bush administration. With such a small group of people I had the opportunity to mix with each and every one of them: at the end of the tour it was nice to have the aformentioned lady ask for my email address in order to stay in touch.

There was lots of entertainment on board as well as many interesting talks. The ship's doctor gave a talk and demonstration on four pressure points to relieve stomach & tooth aches, headache/migrane, neck and shoulders, and insomnia - I'll never have to go to a doctor, dentist or physio ever again!? He also explained and demonstrated the science of accupuncture. I took the opportunity to try it myself (at a cost of $55) for my neck and shoulders - next time I think I'll apply the free pressure-point method! One evening was spent learning how to play Mahjong - having won 2 of the 3 games played I am now shopping around for a set to bring back to Australia.

The trip ended in Chongqing where there was a personal guide waiting for me.

The sights visited were the local zoo where I saw two Pandas munching on bamboo; a silk production demonstration; and a traditional tea house where the protocol of tea drinking was demonstrated. I was put up at a plush hotel (for a mere $60) where my guide told them I was a VIP and had to be well looked after. I was consequently accommodated in room 2008 (a significant year for the Chinese) with a view of the river and the city skyline.

However, the service went too far when right on midnight, when I was asleep, the phone rang with a sweet lady's voice asking if I desired a massage! Although I was half asleep I suspected that the $60 would not cover what I was now suspecting to be what the Chinese term a "happy massage".

So, to confirm my suspicion I asked how much that would cost, to which she replied 800 yuan (almost $180). I kindly declined at which point she softly said call be in room 2005 (which must have been across the hallway) if you change your mind. I went back to sleep wondering what she looked like and trying to work out the dollar conversion rate of 800 yuan - I was comforted in the knowledge that it would buy me 80 1kg bags of roasted chestnuts that I could enjoy back at the local Wuhan park.

Until next time, this is your Nosey Emperor signing off.

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