December 30 – January 3

Many thanks to Liz for permission to use her amazing photos taken on the Yangtze River Cruise of the Three Gorges and various pics of Changsha. You can view her complete photo gallery at: http://datigz.fotopages.com

After teaching regular classes on Sunday December 26th and my evening classes Monday, Tuesday Wednesday, it was Thursday and I was looking forward to four days off and spending them with Liz, my niece from Tokyo, Japan. She was in China on a sight-seeing tour and due to arrive in Changsha that evening. I had been anticipating this visit since before I left Canada!

I jumped in a taxi and headed toward the train station at 7:30 pm. This was the first time I ventured into a taxi on my own. I had the train station and the address for the hotel written in Chinese so I just handed it to the driver. He repeated it and I said: “Dwai” which means yes in Chinese. I knew the way so I watched to make sure we were going in the right direction. After arriving I crossed the plaza to the “Waiting Hall” where I assumed you waited for arrivals. NOT. A young Chinese lady who looked like she could be a university student asked me if she could help and I explained I was waiting for someone to arrive on the train, although I looked like I was going to get on a train as I had my overnight travel bag slung over my shoulder. My plans were to pick up Liz and head to her hotel and stay the night.
As it turns out I was in the wrong area. The Waiting Hall was for people departing. She directed me to the right area and I had a 45 minute wait. Liz’s train was going to be late. So I sat down and did some people watching. You would think it was a major holiday with the amount of people coming and going. When I see major crowds and thousands of people I have to remember this is the normal everyday pace in China.
Liz arrived and we hugged and squealed like a couple of school girls. It was so good to see a familiar face among the crowd. We had both anticipated this visit through MSN Messenger for the past few weeks. The time had finally arrived! Her friend and co-worker from Japan, Cal, also tagged along to the hotel and booked into his room. Liz & I unpacked and headed out for something to eat. It was quite late and we found a small restaurant down the street that served “bots say fan” (my interpretation of how to say it) which is a big pottery bowl that looks like a french onion soup bowl containing rice, meat , vegetables and a fried egg on top of it all. Along with green tea (lu cha) and warm peanuts we gabbed and talked about her trip so far. She arrived in Hong Kong on the 23rd and spent a couple of days there, then flew to Chongqing where she took a 3 day cruise on the Yangtze River to the Three Gorges I was eager to hear about her trip. As it turns out she was just as happy to have a warm room and hot bath as I was! There was no heat at all on the boat or in the cabins.

Here’s a brief history of the Three Gorges Dam Project. It is on my list of things to see in China before I go home.

The Yangtze River, the world’s third largest river, flows from it’s source in Tibet east to Shanghai and into the North China Sea. Scenic rock formations form the 3 large gorges along with 3 smaller gorges that will disappear along with villages and towns when the Three Gorges Dam Project is completed in 2009. The Chinese government is re-locating people and re-building the cities inland. In 2003 the first water flowed from the dam and presently it is 150 feet higher on it’s way to 450 ft. at the final stages. There are actual ghost towns that are waiting to be destroyed before they are flooded as seen in the picture below of Fengdu.

The one good thing coming from all of this is that China will have more electrical power to handle the needs of the masses. The annual output of hydroelectric power will be 12 times that of Niagara Falls!

From my Let’s Go Travel book:
The Three Gorges Project is the world’s largest dam construction site, an overwhelming (and depressing) sight. The sheer scale of the project dwarfs bulldozers, drills and other mechanical monstrosities, making them look like mere sandbox Tonka toys, manned by some 60,000 action figures. When completed in 2009, this 300m high, 2000m wide great wall across the Yangtze (river) and its 28 superturbines will harness more energy than 18 nuclear power plants. The price tag? According to official figures a mere US $17 billion.
When this super-project reaches its final stage in less than a decade, the Three Gorges as we know them will vanish forever, along with the homes of nearly 2 million people and the unexcavated treasure of some 8000 archaeological sites.

After reading the previous entry on weathering the coldness inside and out in Changsha, you will appreciate (as I did) how wonderful it was to stay at a Five* hotel with heat, hot running water, a warm bed, electricity and the piece de resistance – a hot bubble bath!

The Royal Seal Hotel with it’s infamous 27th floor restaurant (see Christmas party entry) with it's complimentary buffet breakfast each morning was a welcoming change from my cold apartment hugging my heating pod through the night.

After a hot bath and wrapping up in a complimentary white fluffy robe, Liz and I stayed up until 3 am catching up on each other’s news and of course the family gossip! Liz downloaded her pics on her laptop and worked on her blog entries as we talked. After some shuteye we were up and at ‘em the next morning. We did a walkabout of my neighbourhood, my apartment, my school and some shopping for pharmaceuticals! Liz was nursing a sore throat and fever. The pharmacy at A.Best recommended Silver Ion, so she purchased some and headed back to the hotel. It was Friday, New Year’s Eve and we were supposed to attend Kim’s party back at the apartment. As is turned out, Liz took some meds and we both napped in the late afternoon and woke up around 9 pm. and did not feel like venturing out into the cold. We rounded up Cal and headed up to the 27th floor for something to eat. The menu was very limited that time of the evening but we managed to share a tuna salad, fruit plate and something else which I cannot remember. Anyway, we headed up to the Wine Bar on the 28th floor and ordered a bottle of “Dynasty” Chinese wine to toast with and ring in the new year. Fireworks could be seen across the horizon of the city as the year 2005 came in with a bang. It wasn’t long after that we headed back to our cosy, warm room to watch more episodes of the Amazing Race which Liz had downloaded onto her laptop. I got all caught up and have since downloaded them myself and I am keeping up to date for once! Downloading takes about 8 hours for a one hour show, so once a week I ask Kim to keep the internet on through the night and hope and pray the power doesn’t go out, otherwise I have to start over and try again.

Saturday, January 1st
Liz and I made plans with Jurgen to go the Hunan Provincial Museum to see the 2100 year old corpse of a Han Dynasty woman that was unearthed in Changsha in 1972. New construction in the city unearthed her large wooden tomb which is also on display along with her de-mummified corpse and all her belongings to take into the next world, including clothing, food, combs, pottery and jewellery to name a few. All articles are on display along with her corpse which to my amazement still has the skin intact albeit very wrinkled. You can also see her bottom teeth that are still in place. Scientists performed an autopsy on the body and discovered she had choked to death on a musk melon seed. Large glass jars are on display preserving the internal organs which were removed. A little overwhelming to say the least……..you can see her stomach which also contains more seeds………….

A third floor exhibit which we chose to pass was of the Terra Cotta Soldiers display which is travelling around China and just happened to be in Changsha this month. We only saw the one on display in the lobby. Of course we didn’t realize what the extra 25 yuan was for at the gate and thought they were ripping us off, so we declined……………oh, well, something else I would like to see in China and perhaps in it’s natural state.

After the usual gift shop shopping and posting some cards for Liz we wandered through Martyr’s Park which is right next door to the museum. It was a chilly, but sunny afternoon. We walked up the hundreds of steps to the Martyr’s Memorial which pays homage to those who died for the Communist cause. The steps were adorned with decorations made out of coloured bottles……or some kind of coloured water or liquid in miniature bottles all wired together in the shapes of zodiac signs. Many outdoor vendors sold candied fruit and corn on the cob. Jurgen tried his luck at a ball throwing game and won a monkey! We wandered around the park and amusement area to the lake and back and saw all the displays lit up after sunset. They were very beautiful!

Back at the hotel we ran into Cal and he joined us for a New Year’s Dinner at the Gold Source Hotel. We met Kim, Heather and Robert (a Bootsnall Blog member from Vancouver!) at the Brazilian restaurant which was in full swing with the waiters and their skewers of meat. (See previous entry: Free Food & Drinks.)

After dinner the whole gang headed back to our hotel room for a few games of Scattergories. Liz had previously told Kim and Heather they were welcome to come over for a hot bath. Kim went first and when Heather decided against it Jurgen jumped at the chance! So, after baths and Scattergories everyone headed out and Liz and I did some more gabbing and watched Little Women on TV – in English!

Sunday was supposed to be our last day together but Liz decided to stay one more night (lucky for me! I asked her if she want to spend some time alone and she said “No, I want to spend all the time I can with you. And I won’t send you back to that cold apartment until the very last minute!”) So after our complimentary breakfast buffet we headed for the train station to buy her ticket for the next day. What a fiasco that turned out to be. We took a cab to the station and wandered around looking for the wicket to purchase tickets. We couldn’t find it and wandered outside until we found another building and inquired at the information desk, Liz using her trusty Chinese translation book. We were directed to a looooooooong line for tickets to Guangzhou. After spending about 10 minutes in a line that wasn’t moving very fast I pointed out to Liz that all these people had luggage with them and were probably purchasing tickets for that day. We left the building and decided to try a travel agent up the street. The language barrier came into effect again and after some goings back and forth we were told that you can only purchase tickets at the building where we were previously in line. So, we headed back and got in line again. Liz knew the number of the train and where she was going and what kind of sleeping berth she wanted. Once we made it to the beginning of the line the lady on the other side of the glass wicket was not co-operative and gave up even trying to help us. She kept pointing to her computer screen and shaking her head as if to say “no”. We interpreted that as a no, there weren’t any seats available. We gave up, Liz grabbed her papers and we left. Outside we saw another travel agency and headed over there. Liz decided she would be willing to pay extra to have them make the arrangements for her. This agency was a little more co-operative and agreed to make the arrangements for an outrageous fee. We left to think it over…………..both a little discouraged and frustrated.
Once we calmed down we decided to consult the information booth again and try to explain she wanted to purchase a ticket for the next day. Bingo! They understood what we were trying to do and directed us to another really short line. The wicket girl was very helpful, found someone behind the scenes who could speak English and tada! Liz had her ticket. What an ordeal. Nothing is easy in China.
By that time we were relieved and realized how hungry we were. After a few blocks we found a coffee shop and treated ourselves to a pot of coffee and shared a banana split. Amazing how caffeine and ice cream can calm the nerves!
Further down the street we found the restaurant Liz had spied in her Lonely Planet travel guide. It’s Chinese name translates to the Fire Palace in English. You are seated at your table and waitresses come by with trolleys of food. Each trolley has an assortment of the same kind of dishes. For example there was the dumpling cart, the rice cart, the tofu cart, the fruit cart, the drink cart. By the time they had all come by once we had a good assortment of food on our table. We tried them all – including the"Stinky Black Tofu" that Changsha is famous for. Liz was brave enough to try it first and after a small bite she gave up. I just had to try it and be adventurous for once. Actually it didn’t taste all that bad! Once you get passed the smell it tastes a little like fried eggs way overdone. I ate most of one piece and we left the rest. Now I can say I tried it and will probably never have it again.
The watermelon juice was my favourite! Watermelon slices are served almost everywhere in Changsha and it’s something that I really enjoy. After our dinner we headed down the street to check out the embroidery shops. The embroidered pictures and wall hangings are amazing. Liz bought herself a handkerchief of white silk and mauve/blue embroidered flowers. We hailed a cab and headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted! Liz needed to do some blog entries so I indulged once more in a hot bubble bath. The next morning we packed up, Liz checked out and we left the luxury of the hotel and headed back to my apartment. I had to be at school for 2 pm. Our visit together was coming to an end. Liz’ didn’t have to head to the train station until 6:30 pm and I had class at 7 p.m. so she hung out at school with me for the afternoon and worked on her laptop in the teacher’s lounge. We went out for supper at Milos where it’s cosy and comfortable with love seats instead of chairs. We ordered pizza and fruit tea and cashew chicken. Then it was time to head back to the school to get her backpack. We found her a cab and it was time to say goodbye. After hugs and kisses we had to part and each go our separate ways again………..although we keep in touch almost every day via email and MSN Messenger. It was a great visit and one I will always remember as part of my experience in China. Thanks again Liz, ya know I love ya!