Day #4: Go West, Young Mojo – Across Hubei Province by Bus to Yieching and the Yangtze Rover (Tuesday, 3/8)

MOJO'ERS SAYING "ZAIJAN" TO OUR NEW WUHAN FRIENDS.


MOJO'ERS SAY GOODBYE TO OUR HOST FAMILY STUDENTS.

Up bright and early today, on the bus and moving by 8:15 am for our 4 hour journey west to the Three Gorges Dam area, located near the western Hubei city of Yieching.

A good long bus ride across China’s newly built interstate roads is a good way to see the countryside and catch your breath, and a good reminder that, while 400,000 million Chinese have been lifted out of poverty and the Chinese economy is booming at 10% growth every year, give or take, more than half of China still lives in the country as farmers. Farms and fields slipped by, many sporting nifty cylindrical solar collectors on the roofs, and the fast pace of the city quickly flattened out into the quieter rural rhythms of the countryside, complete with the occasional ox and hoop/greenhouse and plenty of open land for cultivation.


MOJO'ERS CONSUMING VAST QUANTITIES OF CHINESE FOOD.


AFTER OUR HAPPY VALLEY GORGE CAVE AND TRAIL HIKE.

After a blissed out bus ride, we arrived at Happy Gorge, a local tourist trap west of Yieching, for a cliffside restaurant lunch and a hike through a local park/cave area, before heading to our Chinese cruise boat, departing for the 3 Gorges Dam at 6:30.


HAPPY VALLEY GORGE/TOURIST AREA IN WESTERN HUBEI PROVINCE NEAR THREE GORGES DAM.

I knew the boat experience was going to be unique. International tourist season here doesn’t begin until April, so we booked a 2-day passage on a Chinese passenger vessel to get ourselves onto the Yangtze for two days. Sure enough, as we boarded, looking around, we quickly realized that we were pretty much the only Westerners on board. This was gonna be fun. The bunkrooms prove modest, with 2 beds, and your typical Chinese “shower/bath” combo arrangement, along with an open-air deck in the back in full smell of the boat’s diesel fumes and a lounge area with snacks and sundries on the second floor.

Our Champ China Mojo’ers, I was learning, were fairly good at adapting - despite the cold temperatures, lack of heating and towels, we settled in OK.


ON BOARD THE BOAT - NIGHT TIME CARD PLAY.


FROM THE STERN OF OUR YANGTZE CRUISE SHIP - GOING THROUGH A LOCK AT NIGHT.

Shortly after leaving harbor, we passed through an impressive lock system (80 feet of water rise in just a few minutes) and settled down for the night, enjoying the stares, chatter and occasional smiles and “Ni Haos” of all the Chinese passengers on the boat. Sadly I learned that we would be going through the actual Three Gorges Dam in the middle of the night, and would not really have a chance to see it up close.

I was in bed and asleep by 9:30, after cracking Bejiing-based writer Peter Hessler’s new book COUNTRY DRIVING: A CHINESE ROAD TRIP. The Beijing-based Hessler is my new favorite China observer, having penned three books on the Middle Kingdom, all of them marked by his insightful appreciation of the many paradoxes and contrasts that define emerging China.