Hot and Sweaty
Trip Start
May 01, 2007
1
37
209
Trip End
Jun 17, 2008
Wuhan,
Hubei,
China
Monday, July 30, 2007
Most other backpackers in China find that piles of fliers at each hostel serve as the best resource for finding backpacker accommodation throughout the country. Having spotted the International Youth Hostel in Tunxi out of the window of the bus on my way through there two days early meant I found a nice International Youth Hostel in Wuhan. I have to say that the Wuhan hostel's cafe has great atmosphere and I love their kitschy and colorful decorations that look like they have been assembled from the leftovers of several boathouses. I wouldn't have complained if my room had air conditioning, though.
I saw the Yangtze River for the first time in Wuhan
Chinese nupungyou's who took me on their speed boa
. The city sits on both sides of the river. Along with Dong Hu (East Lake) the city has water everywhere. For my one tourist activity in Wuhan, I headed out to East Lake and had a walk around. I have found in the cities here in China I most enjoy strolling around water and the parks. After about 20 minutes of wandering two young Chinese women invited me to join them on a speedboat that they had rented for an hour. On a sweltering hot day--about 100--zipping along in a speed boat with water splashing up on your outstretched hands is the way to see the sites on East Lake.My mom had brought some articles to my attention about a few hundred people in China having died from flooding on the Yangtze River centered in Wuhan. I had some apprehension as I rolled into town but saw no evidence of massive flooding. According to a couple foreigners in the hostel's cafe who had just come off a cruise down the Three Gorges on the Yangtze, the flooding is actually planned as the Chinese fill in the gorges now that the massive dam in Wuhan is complete. The people who are dying, they say, are the farmers who refuse to leave.
I don't know what to make of it all...I've always disliked dams and the eventual flooding of the Three Gorges has disturbed me for ten years
Sleeper bus
. It seems like a major human rights violation to ignore these farmers not mention the incredible environmental loss of the Three Gorges. Being here now, though, I can see what a massive struggle it is to provide for the billion people here. I don't know if it's fair to judge what is necessary for China. The foreigners enjoyed the cruise a lot. I wondered if I had made a mistake in not including that in my itinerary. Though the gorges have filled mostly with water already, what they saw will also be 100 more meters underwater in a year. You can't do everything, I guess, and I'm still not sure I would want to see the gorges knowing that the real gorges are already flooded with 200 meters of water.
Comments
Chinese Vocabulary
Jeff, glad to see that you got something from the three weeks at BLCU studying Chinese. Between 'Ni Hao' and 'Nupengyou' you're set.