From Hydroelectrics to Taichi (3/9/09 - 3/12/09)

The last 4 days in Hubei Province: Jishou - Yichang - Three Gorges Dam - Yichang - Xiangfan - Wudang Shan - Nanyan - Wudang Shan - Xiangfan - Nanchang. I have been moving a lot and, in combination with the horrendous weather up in Wudang Shan, managed to pick up a cold. Blah. But after some beef noodle soup, cold meds and several oranges I am rebounding as I sit here in this internet cafe at four in the morning in some back alley of Nanchang. So here's the breakdown of the last few days:

In Yichang, I sucked it up and payed for a tour-guided group for the Three Gorges Dam. Although the tour is all in chinese, it was a good deal because it takes care of all the transportation, admission fees to the dam and gets you through all the security hoops which is actually pretty tight. I lucked out though. In my group was one english speaking guy, Sham from Seattle, a hydroelectric engineer of 27 years. Unfortunately, he had to catch a plane after the tour and we couldn't grab lunch, but he was able to give me insight into the workings of the dam: a gravity dam, 2km long, max headwater of 113 m, 26 generators, crane operated gates, etc, etc. Sham had the perfect setup: semi-retired, works 3 days a week, full bennies and travels 2 months a year. Anyway, it was a bit foggy that day and my pictures don't really do the dam justice - watch the History Channel special on it. As for Yichang, it is actually one the nicest cities I have visited. It was surprisingly clean and people actually put their trash in the grabage cans! It had a very lively night scene along the river promenade (even for a monday) with people dancing on the promenade to everything from ball-room music to some sort of Chinese-macarena-electric slide type thing.

After that, I set my sights for Wudang Shan, a UNESCO designated World Heritage site - a mountainous region of about 400 km littered with Taoist temples and structures dedicated to taichi studies. By the time I got up to the small town of Nanyan, which serves as a starting point for several important trails, everything was totally envoloped in clouds with visibility no greater than 100 ft at best. I then set off for the trail leading to the highest point in the region up to the Golden Hall on Tianzhu peak. Initially, I thought that the person who wrote the section in the guide book about how strenous the trail is was likely a wimp. Needless to say, I was pretty beat after 2.5 hours of solid stair climbing. However, I have to say it was pretty tranquil and eerie at the same time with every new set of stairs continuing to a vanishing point in the fog. Along the way there were several temples, shrines and 'heavens' gates' devoted to Taoist deities and founders most dating back to the 13th and 14th centuries. The top third portion of steps was also all original adding to the mystique of the place. I can only 'imagine' that the scenery was fantastic - I will have to buy some postcards...

The next day the cloud level lifted a little and I was able to see some of the scenary a bit and I did a few small hikes. But the weather was pretty miserable and things were starting to freeze over so I pulled the plug and headed back to Xiangfan. On the way down from the mountains though I had the chance to meet 4 westerners who were living at one of the taichi schools for periods as short as 6 weeks to as long as 18 months! Their day goes as such: stretch for an hour, training for ~ 6 hours, stretch, relax and sleep. One fee pays for everything including room and food (rice). They get 1.5 days off a week. I caught them on their day off going to town to 'refuel'. They all talked glowingly of the school and enjoyed the discipline. So, if you have some free time and want to work on your taichi ... just a thought. Anyway, one of the guys, Tobi, is finishing up at the school and heading to Shanghai next week. As Shanghi is also in my sights, I am going to try to meet up with him. He was telling me about these 'metro runs' that they do - sounds kind of like hashing but on metro lines... We'll see.

Side note on trains: Up until this point, I have been toughing out the long rides (8+ hrs) on "hard seats". The last being from Yichang to Xiangfan in which there were no free seats (over-booked) so I stood for a solid 9 hrs in the interchange section of the train - the section where a lot of people like to smoke and is often very packed with people and goods. Oh, and it's also the place where parents come bring their small toddlers to pee. Well after that, it was all sleeper coaches for me - I don't care how much it costs. I arrived here in Nanchang via sleeper coach and it was worth every cent. And the best part: they come tell me when I am at my destination! In the regular seats I can never figure it out, and rather, I try to make educated guesses about where I am at by looking out the window at the surroundings. Asking people isn't that easy. As I have mentioned before, "international" sign language does not always seem to compute very well.

I will probably stay here in Nanchang a few days (I need to do some laundry!) and then slowly work my way to Shanghai.