Author: ascott

We visited the Three Gorges Dam in the morning. This project was begun in 1993.
The dam itself was a controversial issue because of the pros and cons, and the vote indicated that only 70% of people were in favour of it, compared to the usual 90% in other Chinese votes.

Advantages of the dam:
Produces a lot of clean electricity (5% of the national power needs)
Prevents flooding
Allows shipping channels to be extended and managed

Disadvantages:
1.4 million people had to be moved
No project like this one has ever been done before, so we don’t know whether environmental effects are yet to be known.
It’s really big!
Cost a lot of money to construct (although the money was apparently paid back within 3 years)
If it breaks, the flood will be really damaging
Increased landslides may cause rocks to make the dam reservoir shallower and shallower, or the rocks may affect the dam’s foundations

I thought the tour guide’s story was really moving. He told us that many people had to be relocated for the construction of the dam, and Alex’s parents were some of the 1.4 million who were evicted from their homes. This happened at around the time that Alex was at college studying mechanical engineering, so one day at school he got a letter from home saying that the family had been kicked out from their home and couldn’t afford a new house because the government compensation wasn’t enough. Alex moved back to his hometown and got a job at the tourist agency as a guide to help support his family. He says he really enjoys the job because he can go home and have dinner with his family afterwards, which is something that is really important to him. But he also hopes to go back to college and finish his studies someday so that he could become an engineer.

At the start of every day, we receive a question which allows to take in more of what we’re seeing and process it more. Today’s question was, “do the Chinese government and people care about their pollution?” This dam project gave us a pretty accurate answer to this question. The Chinese government sacrificed people’s homes and ways of living for an important cause to justify their massive decision. The dam produces no pollution and produces five percent of China’s total energy needs which is substantial. These new energy solutions work towards a common goal in which to solve China’s pollution crisis.

After the dam excursion, we cruised to Yichang, then flew to Guiyang. A big day of travelling overall.

Lilly and Kristian

Our blog will be updated ASAP. Suffice to say, whilst we have workable wifi, we are trying to upload as many pics as possible.

Hello everyone! This is Elise Baker and Taine Manojlovic reporting in from China. We’re going to be covering our two days on the boat cruise.

On the first day of the boat cruise, we had some time to stretch out and relax before getting into the main activity. The main activity was visiting a pagoda in the middle of the Yangtze River called Shi Bao, on a small island. The pagoda was mainly focused on Buddhism and Taoism, as they are the main religions practised in China. The staircase to the top of the pagoda was really long and tiring to climb but we made it! The entire pagoda was built carefully into the face of the cliff! The architecture was very appealing and we even saw a Chinese giant salamander in a well.

After we explored the pagoda, we had an opportunity to go shopping at the local markets. We were told that the locals would attempt to overcharge us tourists, so we were taught to bargain and barter for cheaper prices. It was good practice to haggle in a small crowd getting used to it before Shanghai and Beijing. A lot of the souvenirs and items there were similar from store to store. The biggest bargain made was probably by Cameron, who brought the price of an ancient Chinese coin from 480 Yuan all the way down to 50 Yuan. A lot of the stuff there was China and panda-themed so be excited for that when we get back home in 2 weeks!

In general, life on the boat is fun, but it occasionally got a bit boring. We had to figure out ways to kill the time such as playing card games, admiring the view from the boat or just plain old having conversations with others. We also watched Harry Potter and the goblet of fire. I personally also enjoyed playing my trumpet mouth piece but I think everyone else disagrees (Elise).

The first day of the cruise was also Jackson’s birthday. He was given a nice cake at dinner by the crew and everyone on the boat sang Happy Birthday to Jackson! He also received some gifts from his family that he had packed in his bag, like a fidget spinner from his brother! He has been spinning it all day. I can’t stand it anymore. Please help!!

After dinner, we had an after party arranged especially for us. There was some nice music but the real highlight was the round of musical chairs. A lot of people missed this so it may be a surprise to some of them too. Taine, Jackson and Ewan all participated in musical chairs with one other random person. Of course, us being as incompetent as we are led to the random person winning. Ah well! (Happy birthday Jackson!)

The next day we spent most of the day on the boat. We spent many hours playing cards, eating food, watching Harry Potter and getting to know each other a lot better.

In the afternoon we took a smaller boat out to another stream off the Yangtze River. On that boat we saw a hanging coffin in the side of a cliff and a rock that looked like an elephant face. You really had to really use your imagination to see the elephant face. The smaller boat took us to a new stream and we got off and proceeded to get onto even smaller pea-pod boats. These boats were rowed by 3 men at the front and 4 men at the back. A travel guide told us about the history of the lake and the town surrounding it. The travel guide also sang us some songs from her home village. At certain sections in the stream, some of the boatmen went onto shore and pulled us by a bamboo rope. Two of the men jumped out and dragged us along in the water from the shore.

That’s all for now!

Elise and Taine

Check out of the hotel
Zongbei Middle school (two campuses)
Tai chi
traditional painting
Made dumplings
Ping pong

Wenshu Temple (Buddhist)

Bullet train to Chongqing

Three Gorges Cruise.
This morning we packed our bags and checked out of the Chengdu Garden City Hotel. We then took a bus to the Zongbei Middle School. There we met new friends who were very excited to see us! This visit strengthened our relationship with the school, as we have been sister schools with them for three years now. The first activity we took place in was Tai Chi. Tai Chi is a mix of meditation and martial arts from which we learnt a simple routine from the school’s instructor. I (Liana) personally enjoyed a traditional painting class that we took today. We used traditional tools like the maobi, which is a brush used with ink to create art; we also used special Chinese paper to paint onto. We first painted crabs, using help from a video for inspiration, but I ended up just experimenting with the ink and having fun. For me, (Liana) this was very unique experience because I got to immerse myself in part of the daily Chinese middle school life and also experience different variations of the similar subjects we have at home.

For me (Kosta) my most favourite experience of the day was by far playing ping pong with the students of Zongbei. It was fun to challenge some of the students in friendly games (even if some of us lost) and we all had a great time. We were all sad to leave the first campus but the adventure continued when we visited a second campus of the Zongbei School! Here we split into two groups and did ping pong and traditional painting. It was especially nice for me (Liana), as I got to continue traditional Chinese painting. In this class we painted a pot of flowers using different inks and my end result I am very proud of! I would love to learn more about this style of painting in the future as it was so much fun and very easy! A new experience we learnt was creating dumplings. Fortunately, we were taught well and the dumplings tasted delicious. This was a dish that I (Kosta) enjoyed very much and would enjoy making again.

Another magnificent place that we visited was the Wenshu temple. We learnt a lot about its history on the bus trip there, including that it was a Buddhist temple. This was an experience for many of us that was excitingly different and will become a long lasting memory that we will cherish. To add even more to the amazing things we have done today we are currently sitting on a bullet train travelling at 300km/ per hour writing this blog. The background is constantly changing as you could close your eyes for a few seconds and everything is completely different. The landscape is beautiful, unlike anything we have seen before – farms, forests, and green as far as the eye can see. To top it all off we are going to be cruising down the Yangtze River in a few hours – an experience that I (Liana) am greatly looking forward to. Today marks the 3rd day of the Big Experience and we have already seen so many memorable places and enjoyed experiences that will be remembered for a long time, and I can’t wait to see what more China has to offer.

Signing out,
Liana & Kosta

Note from staff: we will be on the boat cruise for the next three nights. Wifi will be uncertain during this time, so do not worry if the blog is not updated until the weekend. We hope to be pleasantly surprised…