Yangtze River

We have had daily excursions . One involved taking a ferry up a tributary-Danning River-. We passed more cliffs, saw rhesus monkeys and a few goats. The paths up to the occasional village are nearly vertical. The villagers walk down to the river sometimes taking 4 hours to catch the water boats to Wuhan, the city. we saw caves hundreds of feet up the cliffs, two of which had 2000 year old hanging coffins sticking out of them. How did they get them up there? Who knows?
Another day we stopped at Feng Du. As this city was in the path of the rising water, every inhabitant- over a million- had to move. Noy unlike what was proposed for New Orleans following Katrina. Different governments different responses. What was undisturbed in Feng Du was the Ghost City. Basically a walk up a mountain following a soul through his life to the afterlife- choosing hell or heaven. Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian temples. Lots of wonderful superstitions, full length grotesque gargoyles. Lots of fun including a chairlift ride.
Tomorrow we disembark in Chongqing for a 5 hour bus ride to Chengdu- home of the pandas.

Chengdu April2-3

Chengdu is in Sichuan province, home of the spicy food.Hotel Xin Hua is in the center of the city. This is about 100 miles from the epicenter of the massive earthquake last May which killed tens of thousands. Some damage here. Many western factory outlets- Nike, Adidas etc. The sky is generally cloudy due to the pollution from all the factories. What a price to pay! We walked to the central park where we danced with the women, visited a tea house where we saw local men who clean out people's ears using a tuning fork and a stick with a wad of cotton for 10 yuan. We got so involved that we were late for our dinner and needed a bus. Crammed like sardines for 20 minutes, the locals were delighted to see us. Indeed wherever we go we are stared at or approached by those eager to speak to us. They mob us as if we were celebrities.
On April 3 we visited the Chengdu Panda Breeding Center. They 48 of the world's 1000 pandas, every age including 19 babies from the last year. We were fortunate enough to be present as the keeper used a long stick with a hook to feed 3 three yr olds. It quite possibly was the best animal encounter that I can remember. Watching them push each other and crawl and tumble around was worth the trip. Either I'm tired or the pollution has me or just extremely sentimental but I would have given anything for Brit to be there and I got a little teary. There were many school aged 7 yr olds on a class trip eager to interact and pose for pictures. Consummate experience. Brenda from our group paid 1000 yuan- $150- to hold a 6 month old panda named Bei Bei. for about 5 minutes. A dream come true for her. The pandas seem to enjoy the interaction. The 200 acre park is pristine with walkways, bamboo forests everywhere, flowers and an intro movie.
After lunch we visited the Tibetan areas of the city and met a couple on the street who were kind enough to pose for us and answer our questions. Quite proud that they own 100 yaks. They took the bus 17 hours to the big city. Middle aged, 4 children. The wife was fascinated by the viewfinder on my camera and wanted the picture immediately. She only spoke Tibetan though her husband also spoke Chinese. Told our guide to send the print though he has no address and so remote no mail service. This evening we are on Sichuan Air for an hour flight to Lijiang further south nearer Tibet.
LiJiang
We are staying in the old town of Lichiang near the foothills of the Himalayas. This section is over 800 years old consisting of ancient wooden buildings with curved roofs, pedestrian only with a stream and canals running through much of it. Now mostly artisans and hotels it is nonetheless unbelievably picturesque. The town sits at 7000 feet under the Jade Dragon Snow Mtn which is over 20,000 ft altitude with perpetual snow. Indeed the whole town is on a high plain surrounded 360 degrees by mountains. The sky is blue- no pollution. This is the first time my throat has not felt raw. As we walked the streets we saw the chickens and fish live outside the restaurants waiting to be picked out. There was a strong temptation to save them before supper. Our day excursion took us to a Tibetan village and the home of Joseph Rock who settled here as a botanist and taught the local people different skills. The village is quite unique. The houses are fairly similar , made of huge stones, first floor animals, the second for the family. The doors are ornately carved wood- teak I think or mahogany. The people are of different ethnic groups mostly Nazi and Tibetan with also Yee. Their native dress is distinctive and easy to identify each group. the Nazi are blue and have large bows which look like wheels on their back. The children loved the little things we brought.
Really I could have stayed here for a week. The town of Shangri-la is about an hour away. The park is covered in flowering trees and today is the day that the Chinese come to sweep the tombs of their ancestors. It is a holiday throughout the country and we are so fortunate as they are dressed locally here in their finest costumes.
We have determined that Bert and I will leave the group to go to Tibet on our own. We have had to pay separately for the airfare and hotel and for a guide. OAT has gotten the permits. the border has been closed for a month to forestall any unrest over the 50th anniversary of the takeover by them of Tibet and the flight of the Dali Lama. we will fly with our group to Kunming and have dinner with them then head back to the airport to fly back to Chengdu and then onto Llasa the next morning. We will have 3 days there and then fly back through Chengdu to Hong Kong and hook up with the group for the last night before our flight back to the States. This is all pretty ambitious for 2 people who know no Chinese except Ni Hao and Mei Li. We have no tickets and will be met at Chengdu just before that AM flight by a young girl named Vicky Lee who has the documents. We are to meet near a vegetable stand at 6AM. Yeah right!
So there we were landing back in Chengdu at 2AM. We knew we had to wait until 6 for Vicky and looked around for a chair. There were none. Not one. Finally I slid down the side of a window and Bert found a high stool used by a guard during the day. That lasted 20 minutes at which time we were rousted by the police and thrown outside in the street! No one knew a word of English and had no pity on us. Some huckster came up to me and wrote 5 Yuan on his hand and offered to take me somewhere in his car. Can you imagine? Luckily the weather had broken a little and it was not truly freezing. We put on all the clothes we could find and scrunched next to the terminal with all our luggage. Bert even found a piece of cardboard to put under him. Funnily enough some old lady came along and he ended up fending her off as she tried to steal it from him!. I kept thinking, what has happened to me? How did I end up homeless in China on the streets. Me ,a 57 year old , grandmother from Rhode Island. It just made me laugh.
Finally we were allowed back in around 5:30AM to the warm terminal and Vicky showed up right on time. A lovely young 22 year old Chinese girl with excellent English. She spent some time with us as we talked about her life in Chengdu. I wish I could have brought her home.
Tibet
Eventually we boarded our flight to Tibet. We were so conspicuous as we were the only Westerner on the flight. The border had only opened that day and we were the first foreigners to be allowed in. Everyone stared at us when we got to Tibet. The 2 hour flight took us over the tallest mountains I have ever seen. Absolutely desolate and stunning with the snow and rocky peaks. Not a road or sign of habitation to be seen. It was absolutely mesmerizing and the time flew by. The airport for the country is located about 60 miles from Lhasa. This is because it is the closest flat area to the city.
We decided to take the bus to the city which caused further consternation by the locals as foreigners usually take cabs. the bus cost the equivalent of a dollar, the cab around $30- no contest. The funny thing is that our guide who met us there had to come with us leaving his friend who now lost out on his fare. we had to promise that we would stay with our guide- really a guard and not say or do anything political. the tour people were really adamant about that.
Tibet has been a lifelong goal of mine and if it took keeping my opinions to myself for a few days- amen.
The ride in from the airport was beautiful. mountains everywhere punctuated by the occasional village. Everywhere you see flags of all different colors as streamers. We call them pennants. They are for luck here. Lhasa was kind of a surprise and not really a good one. Over the past 50 years the Chinese have slowly started to take away the culture of the Tibetans. They have moved in the Han Chinese who now pretty much outnumber the native Tibetans. The Tibetan houses have been demolished and replaced with typical rather cheap Chinese buildings.The Chinese get the better jobs as well. Our hotel the Shang Bala is in the Tibetan section in the Bakour market. This is more like it. There are pedicabs if we choose not to walk. The altitude is a little dizzying and I realized that many, if not most of our group, would have been herd pressed to tour here.
Our guide, Joe, is Han Chinese and has lived here from Shanghai for 20 years. He asks us very politely not to go out with out him and we agree so he leaves. When we are sure he is gone we go out. Everyone knows who we are. We are interviewed and photographed for Tibet Daily as we are the first outsiders for months. People stare st us but we are captivated by the sounds and sights of the market. We are near the Jokang Temple which is the holiest site in Tibet. Kind of their St Peter's . The women wear colorful wraps and have braids nearly to their feet. The men wear leather wide hats and both carry prayer wheels which they spin as they are walking. Cool way to pray. They walk round and round the Temple. Some people lay prostate on the ground and propel themselves forward like an inchworm. You can smell incense everywhere as well as yak butter. That is what they use to burn as candles. The buildings surrounding the open square with the market are about 2 stories high and on the top are armed soldiers keeping watch. Indeed everywhere we look are the soldiers. There must be 10,000 in the city. It is a little unnerving.
On the way back to the hotel we meet a young man from Ohio who lives here and has founded the Tibet equivalent of Starbucks. He knew who we were of course and it was so interesting to speak with him. From him we learned kind of the inside scoop on the Tibetan -Chinese problems. He will only hire Tibetans though he is married to a Chinese woman. He also has the only internet cafe in Lhasa. He looked like he should be surfing instead of fighting for Tibetan rights. Good for him!
Our 3 days were filled with visits to the monasteries and Potala Palace. I loved Drepung Monastery set way up on a hill past a herd of yaks. The weather turned from bright sunshine to snow within a span of 2 minutes. the mountains were literally breath-taking. Touring inside the monastery, now home to 700 maroon clad monks, we climbed steps which were really ladders. Room after room of Buddhas. A little overwhelming really.
The next day the Potala winter home of the Dali Lama has 1000 rooms. It overlooks and dominates the city and is blinding white with a red roof. I cannot recall how many stairs and ladders we climbed. I was speechless at the amount of gold and silver in the funereal tombs of the many lamas. Literally there were tons of it. The quarters are very close with no windows and the ubiquitous smell of the burning incense and yak butter.
We ate Yak for lunch which was delicious. Joe was an excellent guide. We visited the summer palace- a long walk and then the Jokang Temple near our hotel.
On the roof were gold prayer wheels and excellent vantage points to take pictures down onto the market place. It was here that a police man grabbed my camera and deleted some of my pictures claiming in Chinese- as translated by Joe- that I had taken pictures of the guards on the surrounding buildings. I was kind of scared as he was yelling at me. Then he told me to go stand next to the edge of the wall and motioned to Bert to join me. I didn't know if he was going to shoot us or what. But he did shoot us - with my camera!
We also toured the Sera Monastery which is known for its arguing monks though we did not see that. All in all I was so glad that we went. In a sense it was disappointing that Lhasa has been so decimated but I learned so much.
On the fourth day we headed back to the airport to repeat that spectacular flight. From chengdu we headed on to hong Kong arriving at night. We took a bus to the hotel and met our group while they were at dinner. Our hotel room overlooked the famous harbor and we stayed up as late as we could watching. Looks like a great city and we will come back some day to do it justice. In all we had 12 flights both to and within china. Every one was superb and left on time. I loved our visit to China. I loved the people. I know they show us what they want us to see but it was so worth going.