March 31, 2003
We had a nice buffet breakfast; mostly American, but the usual congee
with pickled condiments. I had bacon and eggs, but garnished with pickled long
beans and salted bok choy. I think I’m getting hooked on this stuff.
We boarded a deferred maintenance (no big surprise) bus for the ride to
Maoping.
We had a stop at a little shopping area before lunch to buy some drinks or snacks and “sing a song.” As the toilets were Asian style (a hole in the floor), I decided to wait and “sing my song” at the restaurant. We had lunch in Jinzhou (right – lazy susan again). We “go tinkle” or “go to the little girls’ room,” but in China, you “go sing a song.”
We also stopped by a part of the wall which formerly enclosed the city and found some wonderful warrior statues to photograph. They must been recently painted, because the colors were fresh and beautiful.
I was glad we reached the dam construction site at a point where we
were required to travel part of the distance by bus. I loved seeing the
countryside and marveled at the stark contrast again between big business and
daily life. Many people subsist on the bare necessities even though 98% of the
households have at least one TV. Some suburban houses looked abandoned, though
they were fully occupied. They seldom have curtains and never have landscaping.
I saw a few normal-to-us residences but it was obvious that these were the
wealthy people.
The city people are stacked; the outskirts are still stacked but not so
high, and the country people live in a small “house” on their little bit of land.
I would call these homes brick hovels with tile roofs. They were very small and
sometimes had a dog or chickens in the bare area near the house.
The agricultural areas were much neater and at that time of year they
made a beautiful spring scene. There were fields and fields of yellow canola
(or rapeseed) blossoms. I thought it was mustard, but the leaves were spindlier
and the flowers bigger and “sturdier.” The canola was planted in rows to form a
rectangle. Rice was planted in the ground and at a certain state in the
development, the fields are flooded or the seedlings are transferred to a wet
field.
There were many square ponds; some had rice, some were fish farms, and
others were duck farms. Some farmers planted small trees which had vivid pink flowers
(plums? I never did find out), and a few squares had small white blossoms which
I believe were cherries.
We passed large new industrial and office buildings with landscaped grounds, sometimes punctuated with sculptures. Buicks, Citroens, and VW’s are made in this area. I also saw Coke, KFC, and McDonalds.
Many of the highways had extensive and very decorative landscaping. When we reached the dam area, the contrasts were even more amazing. There was a high rise hotel for the big wigs, large modern office buildings, extensive grounds of lawns and decorative shrubs, and flowers lining the streets, and uniformed military everywhere.
A motorcycle with three young men aboard were following the bus. I saw
them smiling and pointing at me. I raised my camera and gestured “okay?” They
gave me broad smiles and peace signs, so I snapped their picture.
We left the highway and bumped down-down-down over a temporary dirt road to the river. We still had a bit of a walk on a dirt path and then a downhill concrete slope. The ship’s crew were stationed along the route to assist if we needed help with our carry-ons. We were met at the docking area by a small brass band dressed in white uniforms. Lots of enthusiasm, but little talent. Gold stars for effort.
Our cabins were very small, but expected, as the ship is small. We had
a buffet dinner of “combined western and Chinese cuisines.” The lemon chicken
was wonderful. I found very little to qualify as western, however. I was okay
with that, but some were grumbling.
After dinner we had our orientation meeting, and some were nodding off before it ended and we could go to our cabins. I wanted to recharge my camera battery, but couldn’t find a plug-in, and couldn’t make anyone understand what I needed. I started out to search for someone who spoke some English and ran into our guide. He finally got through to one of the crew, and the answer was under the little refrigerator. I had to get down on my hand and knees, unplug the refrigerator, insert my converter and adapter, and then I could plug in my charger. When Walter, our guide, saw that he had to slide sideways through my door because the suitcase was stored behind it, and the plug-in situation, plus I mentioned that I was only one door away from the cocktail lounge, he graciously asked for another room for me. The ship was only half full, and they moved me to a double. My suitcase fit under the bed and the plug-in was at eye level. I had no soap, no washcloth, or shampoo, but no problem – I brought my own. Again, I felt as if I was in Mexico. The fan knob wouldn’t turn and the a/c spit out bits of black stuff, but it landed on the bed I wasn’t using. The cap on the hot water knob kept falling in the sink, exposing the screw, but I just grinned and said “I’m so glad I live in the USA.” After my noisy neighbor turned off her TV at 11:00 p.m. I slept from 11:30 to 3:30 and a half hour from 5:00 to 5:30. I read my book – yes, the same one – and got up at 6:30.
