My cruise on the Yangzi River to see the Three Gorges was more of an
adventure than I anticipated. I went with five other volunteers from
the CCS program. We began our journey by flying from Xian to Chongqing,
which is a large, modern port city on the Yangzi. After wandering
around looking for a place to have dinner, we found Pizza Hut and
decided some Western comfort food sounded great. I ordered a small
veggie pizza and, as a special treat, a hot chocolate. I haven’t had
cheese since arriving in China. It tasted great!

We were then taken to our boat and to our room, which the six of us
were sharing–an interesting adventure in itself. I immediately asked
how to turn on the heat. The response from our Chinese guide was a
puzzled look and then a sad shaking of her head, followed by the
information that there was no heat any where on the boat! I had to take
a few deep breaths to keep from freaking out. As you may recall, before
booking my place on the trip, I specifically asked if the boat was
heated.  I was now committed to three days on a boat with no heat in
the middle of winter. Temperatures were probably somewhere in the low
50’s and 40’s, and the sky was overcast and drizzling at times.

Another important thing for you to know was the trip had been booked
on a domestic cruise, which meant we were traveling with Chinese people
who were on holiday. (A woman in our group speaks fluent Mandarin.)
There were things I enjoyed about this, including playing mahjong with
them for an afternoon and sharing their delight in the cruise and in
seeing the beauty of their country. The down-side was listening to all
of the announcements in Chinese and listening to Chinese karaoke, which
was just down the hall from our room.

The next three days I spent living in my hooded fleece top and down
jacket and enjoying the spectactular scenery of the Yangzi. The sides
of the Three Gorges rise dramatically toward the heavens, often with
steep rocky cliffs extending from the water to the sky.

The immensity
of the gorges made it difficult to accurately judge the height.
Depending on the location, it was 1000 to 1500 feet above the water
line is our best guess. It was peaceful and quiet with occasional
shipping boats passing by loaded with coal, cars, and semi-trucks.

In addition to the Three Gorges, we also visited the Three Small
Gorges, which took us to the Three Mini-Gorges, which we traversed in
small wooden boats lead by a Chinese man in a big tropical-looking hat
who sang songs to us and tried to get money from us. He was very
persistent at times. Several Westerners gave him money saying he
wouldn’t take no for an answer. I won this "round" with him. I was not
willing to be manipulated.

All of the Gorges were beautiful and special. When we were in the
small boat, I dipped my hand in the water and it was lukewarm, much
warmer than the air. At the end of the trip, we saw the world-famous
Three Gorges Dam, which is nearing completion. The water level has
already risen 100 meters with an additional 75 meters planned. Several
small towns and temples have been relocated to higher ground.

The dam is immense in width-1.4 miles-as it spans the Yangzi. Here
are other statistics about this famous dam at this link:
http://www.moafs.org/newsletter/April%202002/3gorgestats.htm.

At the end of the cruise, we took a taxi to our hotel where we had a
reservation in Yichang. When we arrived, it was a beautiful, very fancy
hotel with a big chandelier and columns in the lobby. I was excited.
Now I was going to have some heat. To my dismay, there was NO HEAT in
the lobby, which did not bode well for our rooms. They reassured me
there was heat in our rooms. I am nearly at my limit for tolerating the
cold. I think I’ve got it worked out to keep warm tonight. Thank
goodness!  🙂

Even though there have been challenges, I’m delighted I did the
cruise. If I know what I know now, I might not do it again although I’m
sure a boat for foreigners in the warmer weather would have been MUCH
more comfortable.

I’m loving my time here in China. My plans have changed since I last wrote. In fact, things are pretty fluid and changeable here; but there is a flow that works effortlessly. This is somewhat like the traffic here and walking on the sidewalks here. I am constantly amazed there are so few fender benders. I have never seen driving like this in any of the countries I have visited. You could call it a "free-for-all, every person for herserlf" flow. Funny, huh?

It is Thursday evening here in Xian at 8:45 PM, and 4:45 AM Thursday morning in CA. I have had another full, satisfying, fun, expansive week.

On Sunday three of us volunteers went to see the Terracotta Warriors whom many consider to be the 8th Wonder of the World. (See the Wikipedia article here.)  It is hard to imagine the man-hours that went into making them, and then the man-hours that went into putting them back together after they were discovered in the late 1970’s.  They haven’t put them all back together, nor do they plan to do so. Seeing part of them in pieces helps the visitor to understand and appreciate the work and skill that has gone into restoring them. I cannot even begin to imagine. The top portion of the photo shows what they discovered when the Terracotta Warriors were uncovered.

On Tuesday morning, Jerome, the director of Cross-Cultural Solutions here in Xian, drove me to see the Women’s Cultural Museum, created by a woman professor of gender issues at the university where the museum is located. So fun, interesting and inspiring! There were stories and artifacts from average women’s lives in China and a large room with over 50 wedding dresses of the different ethnic groups and areas of China. I loved the clothes!

Another very interesting part of the museum is about Women’s Chinese Characters. These characters are different than the usual written Chinese characters and were handed down from the older generation of women to the younger generation of women only. Men could not read them. In this way, women communicated with each other and supported one another without the knowledge, rules, or interference of men. I find this fascinating.

While we were there, Jerome asked me if I would like to help with re-writing the English explanations of the exhibits. The English needs improvement to be clearly and easily understood. I am delighted to do this. I’m honored to be a part of supporting this important project for women in China.

Wednesday morning, two of us volunteers went to the Starfish Children’s Foster Care Center, which was founded by Amanda, a woman from South Africa. She has 16 babies right now, all of whom she rescued from a government orphanage and all of whom are special needs babies who have some kind of medical condition. She gets them treatment for their physical problems, including spina bifida, cleft palette and heart conditions. Then she helps the children to be adopted, usually by couples in the US. I loved talking with her and hearing her story. Holding 8 month old Sara was also a delight.

Now to my change of plans. For the last few years, ever since China announced the damming of the Yangtze River, I’ve wanted to take a boat cruise through the Three Gorges before they are flooded when the dam goes into effect. I didn’t think I was going to get to do it this trip. Well, as fate/the Universe would have it, a group of 6 of us volunteers are leaving tomorrow morning to do a 3-day trip on the Yangtze and thru the Gorges. Yeah!! I checked to make sure there is heat on the boat, and there is… so all is well.

After I return to Xian from the Three Gorges trip, I fly out the next morning to Shanghai on my own. This is the beginning of a whole new adventure…traveling solo. After spending two days in Shanghai, I fly to Beijing for 3 days to visit the Forbidden City, Tiannamen Square, and the Great Wall. I don’t know if I’ll be able to write to you next week. I’ll have to find an internet cafe, which will hopefully be easy.

I hope you are all enjoying the holidays. I look forward to returning in about 10 days after I complete my adventure here.

Much love to you,
Connie

My days here are so filled with amazing, expansive, delightful experiences I hardly know where to begin. Here are a couple of highlights:

English Corner–Every Thursday night at one of the univeristies, the local people (mostly university students) gather to practice speaking English. If you are a native English-speaker from another country, they gather around you for the opportunity to interact and learn from you. When I heard about it, I thought it sounded interesting. After arriving at the university about 7:30 PM and as we walked toward the gathering, I discovered the meeting was OUTSIDE in the COLD, and it is COLD here. I live in my down jacket whenever I’m outside. I suddenly wanted to flee back to the car because I could not imagine standing in the cold for 60 to 90 minutes talking with ANYONE.

It was a heart-warming and body-warming experience. People gathered around me three deep, which kept me warm. Or perhaps I was warmed from the inside out by the innocent, open, sincerity of the Chinese people. Imagine being surrounded by about 20 – 30 people, all eager to meet you, to share with you, and who think you’re wonderful just because you showed up.

My heart is daily touched and warmed by the loivng openess of the Chinese people whether it is in a city of 7 million or in a classroom of 60. They laugh easily and often.

Another experience–walking through a city park on the way to the Great Mosque. We come upon a small gathering of people including 9 musicians warming up on their traditional Chinese instruments. There is a small crowded gathered around waiting for them to begin. We joined the crowd, somewhat tapping out feet as we wished they would get on with it since we had places to go. How Western of us!

As we were waiting, a Chinese woman walked up to us, offered us a small, low table and two very small stools to sit on. We had become guests. The Chinese audience were simply standing or sitting on the surrounding rocks. Then this woman brought us a paper plate with peanuts in shells and sunflower seeds and cups of hot tea. Of course, we sat down and enjoyed being special guests. We were blown away by this experience!

Within 10 – 15 minutes, the musicians began playing and people took turns coming up to the microphone to sing. Their singing sounded like Chinese opera. It is very high-pitched, and we might call is "screeching." It was all beautiful to our ears as was the joy and child-like innocence of their beingness.

I hope these stories give you a peek into the magnificent, magical experience I am having in China. I am constantly interacting with warm, beautiful people–Chinese people of all ages, the other volunteers, the staff of Cross-Cultural Solutions here in Xi’an. Every part of it is fantastic.

We in the West have so many comforts and our lives are physically easier than for most Chinese people. We take all our comfort for granted, and we often lose our innocence and openness in connecting with others. I’ll write more on this soon.

I promised news of my upcoming trip to China and here is the first of many posts you will read about this adventure. 

I am leaving for China in 5 days! To be exact, my flight is at 1:20 PM on the Friday after Thanksgiving, November 24. I fly from San Francisco non-stop to Beijing where I arrive on Saturday at 5:25 PM after a 12 hour flight. I’m planning to watch movies, read lots, perhaps do some writing and crosswords, and take my Melatonin for sleeping! I seem to be able to enter a "zone" when I fly in which the time miraculously goes by and I am content and happy. Perhaps traveling is in my blood.

After I arrive in Beijing, I have 2 hours and 20 minutes to go thru customs and get to my next flight to Xi’an which is where I will volunteer teaching English to primary school children for two weeks. Someone from Cross-Cultural Solutions will meet me at the airport and take me to the Home Base.

I begin my volunteering on Monday or Tuesday, I’m not sure which.

You’ll be hearing more as I learn more.