August 4, 2010 - Yangtze River, Chongqing, China
"You can never step into the same river, for new waters are always flowing on to you."
~ Heracitus of Ephesus
The Victoria Princess is not a luxury cruise ship. It's more like a Motel 8 floating down the Yangtze River. Capitalism at its finest.
After leaving Chongqing last night, we navigated about 100 miles, arriving in Fengdu early this morning. With the Three Gorges Dam construction, the backwaters inevitably became deeper, thus drowning many Yangtze River towns. Old Fengdu is now underwater, but a new Fengdu metropolis has been built on the rivers northern shore, above the new flood line. On the south shore is the haunted "Ghost City" which is really a series of temples featuring Yinwang, God of the Netherworld, built on Minshan Hilltop. The Chinese prefer riding chairlifts to the top of anything with a view, including the The Great Wall and Minshan. With the increase in Yangtze River cruises, more people have become interested in visiting the "Ghost City," so China has taken these beautiful, naturally aging ancient temples and built new pavilions, shops, and a 5-story Buddha head on a neighboring hill. There's a theme-parkness atmosphere.
China was not open to my grandparents generation. China didn't have the info-structure for accessibility to my parents generation. China is working frantically for the current generation. The Chinese people like Disney-nification of nature and culture. I hope a balance between maintaining integrity and appeasing the people can be met for future generations.
Cruise ship life is lovely. This morning I woke to soft music playing throughout the cabin and after the morning "Ghost City" tour, the crew greeted us with cold Tea Tree scented washcloths and chilled Green Tea. I originally hoped to spend this relaxing time conversing with native Chinese, but the cruise line had a different idea. Table 17 is where all Europeans (myself included) have been placed - four from Netherlands, two from Germany, and two from Austria. We've even been assigned English speaking hosts and hostesses as personal waitstaff.
Most of the afternoon was spent sitting in shade on the top deck as the Victoria Princess cruised east, away from Fengdu towards the Pacific Ocean. Ironically, even though I'm observing farmers, fisherman, construction workers, and daily life on the Yangtze shores (from a commercial cruise ship) - what I'm really seeing is the non-commercialized China. The river winds through green hills of forest intertwined with terrace farming. China recognizes that deforestation increases flooding and erosion, thus cutting down trees is illegal in many parts of China. It would be easy to identify which year this law was passed by merely counting the rings on a Yangtze River tree. The trees on the river banks are all the exact same size, and appear to be the same age.Today's Victoria Princess Cruise Schedule:
07:00 Music morning call
07:30 Breakfast served in Dynasty Dining Room
08:30 Passengers disembark on excursion to Fengdu, the "City of the Ghosts"
11:00 Passengers return to the Victoria Princess
12:00 Lunch served in Dynasty Dining Room
18:30 Captain's Welcome Banquet
20:00 Safety onboard played on cabin TV
20:30 Dance Party
