I left Shanghai armed with a pen, a notebook, and a camera.
Yichang was a cool place to visit. Tiago opted out of going, so I went alone. To be honest, I would have loved for him to join me, but I also enjoyed unrestrained travel. And to some extent I think that shows a level of selfishness, but the dilemma has caused me no loss of sleep. Friday night I took the subway to Pudong airport. I planned to stay inside the airport for the night because my flight was at 7:30 PM, and the subway would not open early enough and taxi would be expensive and risky. It turned out to be convenient and even provedencial. I had to finish writing my 10 page film paper that was due Saturday night, and I didn't want to write it in Yichang. This might be the technical first allnighter I've pulled for school. I even went against my principles and bought hot chocolate from Starbucks (I meant to buy iced hot chocolate because it is so hot in China but I was too tired and forgot when I was ordering).
I got my plane ticket from a kiosk and stored by luggage at the airport around 6 PM, then I flew to Yichang with only my backpack. I arrived at the San Mao hostel around 10:30. Zoey, the young Chinese lady who ran the place, was very helpful and spoke good English. I meet an Israeli guy named Jon, and I sang "Under the Bridge" while he played guitar. He had to leave right after. I proof read my essays and slept. Around 4:30 I set off on foot to explore and hike around. It was still catastrophically astronomically hot. I walked across the bridge and hiked on the opposite side where there was a park.
Don't let this scale fool you. This is a huge bridge. It took me a long time to cross on foot.
View from the hike.
I enjoyed watching the sunset on the Yangtze. It reminds me of watching the sunset on the Amazon.
Besides at the hostel, I don't think I saw any other western looking people. And that is pretty cool because that means Yichang is a pure Chinese city. It is not tainted with direct Western influence. I walked along the Yangtze in a very long and nice park till dinner, then I tried some of the Chinese crayfish per suggestion of the hostel people. It was pricey, but it had a very interesting and different taste and it offered a different eating experience.
Each crawfish is meticulously prepared. They cut off the head forming a hole that they plug with spices, and they slice the tail in half. That was some of the most delicious and savory crawfish I've had. The sauce around them is filled with so many spices and it tastes spicy and sweetish. I went back to the room and got ready to sleep.
Sunday was one of the best days I had on the trip. I followed the hostel's directions for getting to the Three Gorges Dam, and I got there in less than two hours. It required me to take one city bus and walk and take a longer distance bus to the town by the dam. On the way there I meet a friendly guy named Tony who helped me get tickets. He worked there. The Three Gorges Dam is so large looking at it doesn't really make you understand how large it is.
Also, you have to stand pretty far away to actually see it. The parks around it are nice; however, the weather was super hot. The water level didn't look too high upstream compared to downstream. I suspect it is not the rainy reason. Again, the day was so hot. I began my journey back to Yichang around 2 PM. I meet Tao waiting for the bus. We kicked it off and spent the rest of the evening together. He is pretty cool, and he was very kind to me. He's studying to be a pilot. He's from Xi'an. The hardest part of traveling is making friends and them saying goodbye.
We walked into the second half of a catholic service.
At 10 I went to the train station and waited till 1:30 AM, then I took a soft sleeper to Zhangjiajie. It was a pleasant experience. The three other bunks in my room were occupied by a family of 4. They were cute as they all started getting ready to sleep. I think the little boy was afraid of sleeping on the bunk with his sister, so the father moved them to the bottom. The mother had laid down immediately. I can only imagine she must always be sleepy like my mom.
