How I experienced China

The Three Gorges

2 – 3 – 4.10.1990

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We go on shipboard on departure eve to avoid getting up early next morning. I am very excited entering the small cabin of the San Xia (Three Canyons), boat with four bridges, 70m. long, 15m. broad. It will bring us to Wuhan – 1.350km. I’m glad to rest, sailing on the Yangtze after those fifteen days wandering. At 8 o’clock a slow siren awakes us; they weight anchor. I see looking through the scuttle, moving away, in the fog, the sad medieval city perched on the rock. I remind its people on the strike, bowed beneath their burden. Sad memories of Chongqing. Gloomy weather incites me to idle to day sailing in the direction of Shanghai (where we’ll arrive by another way). The people call this river Chang Jiang (Large River) because it’s the longest river on world (6.000km.) after the Amazon and the Nile. In the evening San Xia anchors.
Yet at dawn I feel it will be a splendid day. The sunshine invites us early in the morning to go on the deck where any notables are still installed in their armchairs expecting the Canyons. Milan sitting near me, keep silent, we communicate by mind. It’s quiet around us; I only hear the commotion of water caused by the boat. The quietness stops when we approach villages along the coast. On the strand crowd is waiting the boat, some to offer their goods to the passengers, others to embark. Over pontoon bridges go first those who arrived at their destination, then embark pitiful travelers overloaded with packages and enormous bamboo baskets. Women carrying bales on their heads drag children clutched on their skirts. From the boat some rush to the bank to buy something though it’s possible to purchase by air! How? From the bank villagers offer fruit, roasted chickens, wafers, fritters…carpets…Prices are signalized with the fingers. Goods are thrown in lucky hands and then is the money sent by air too! Assiduous sellers enter the river, arms raised, holding a plate with their products. The scene – gesticulations and cackling concert are amusing but in a way sad to me.
The landscape turns more and more wild; the canyons are in front of us. Standing on the head I follow apprehensively the evolutions of the San Xia. On both sides rise mountains, some 1.000m. high. Sometimes, when the river gets very narrow and the rocky chains are so close, the wonder mingles with fright, especially when the river seems not to have an issue. Then appears a buckle and our ship expertly slips through the dangerous passages which are marked by beacons to avoid the rocks invisible on the surface of the water. At a moment I think how lucky I am to enjoy these wonders, safe from dangers, whereas before the construction of the dam, sank in these calamitous canyons hundreds of boats carrying away thousands of lives.
At the end of about 200km. of slalom our San Xia enters calmer water, widening up to two kilometers. In the evening we put in. Yet 500km. to float till Wuhan.
The third day - sunny – is not diversified. A favorable opportunity to meditate and enjoy the welfare.



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