Red Pagoda

There are pics for today, if I can get them uploaded. If you don’t see 4 pics, just come back in 2 days. I will be able to post them from Shanghai. We cruised the Yangtze River, going through the first two gorges. Our off-boat tour today was a ride up a mini-gorge in a small boat. It’s an amazing area. The Chinese do themselves a disservice. They focus on some particular formation, attaching great importance to it. They build suspense, with everybody waiting to get around the bend to see the great formation. Then it turns out to be not much of anything given our view from the river, or some such thing. In the meantime, we lose focus on the grandeur and beauty of this area. For example, the second gorge is known for having “hanging coffins”. These are coffins, over 2000 years old, made of logs and placed in caves as high as possible above the river. A number of these were flooded when the dam was built. One can see some of the coffins in a museum. There is supposed to be one coffin still in its cave and visible from the small boat in the mini-gorge. Everybody was craning their neck in a futile attempt to find the coffin. In the meantime, we are sailing through some of the most amazing countryside I have ever seen.

Sampan Fish Market

There aren’t a lot of pics because they make a majestic area look banal. The Red Pagoda is from yesterday, at the relocated village we visited. I forgot it was on my cell phone. The sampan fish market was kind of cool. The sampans catch fish. Then they sail up to a tour boat and beat on the hull. Somebody from the tour boat comes out and buys fish for the buffet. The hanging coffin cave is explained above. The last picture shows dust that is still stirred up from a landslide that happened quite a while ago. I feel it deserves a name as grand as any of the other silly landmarks. I took a cue from the aura of mystery caused by the dust, and named it “Gateway to the Gods”.

Hanging Coffin Cave

Tomorrow we will be traveling until quite late. I might not be able to post tomorrow.

.

Landslide Dust