..12.. mao tse-tung

many chinese people seem to have great respect for this communist leader whose regime scared its people into submission and outward support.

a frank tour guide said the government makes empty promises and effectively supresses any dissent using fear. in 1989 a group of pro-democratic student protesters in tian'anman square were mowed down with military vehicles and firearms - thousands were killed, but the news didn't make it to china. while the rest of the world knows about this tragedy, the communist government (which controls the media) prevented its own country from hearing about it.

markets sell anything you can imagine - bags, statues, alarm clocks - with Mao insignia - ironic that the antithesis of capitalism seems to be a successful product!

..11.. xi'an

mom's birthday!
a bike ride around this cute town's walls got our stay off to a nice start. the next day, we headed to the burial site of the Terracotta Warriors (said to be the 8th wonder of the world), buried for a crazy emporer who had killed both of his brothers by age 14 to assure his ascendency to the throne. he immediately started planning for his death: for the next 37 years, he commissioned an entire porcelain army of statues with real weapons, standing in war formation. he actually wanted to bury the living army to protect him, but the people wouldn't stand for this. there was a sword that was still sharp enough to cut cleanly through 20 sheets of paper - it was a bronze sword coated with chromium - a process not developed until the mid 1900s, but apparently known to these people of 300-200 bc. this was a truly amazing place that made me want to take an intensive archaelogy course.

..10.. progress

a gentle breeze swirls stray hairs out of my pony tail. sitting on the top deck, away from the bar & the gossiping, is refreshing. china is unimaginably beautiful. it's sad to see it growing so quickly, to see their incredible natural resources turned into tools for more quickly accumulating fancy cars and tiny cell phones. it feels selfish to wish for china to remain 'undeveloped', as 'development' has been taught to be a social good. and i'm not worldly enough to know what an 'undeveloped' lifestyle entails, or at least not in its entirety. but could it be that development trades one set of (quite tangible) problems for another set of more elusive ones? surely, people who are starving and diseased cannot be as happy as someone as comfortable as i am. but what about a successful farmer? is there not a way to live simply, perhaps 'underdeveloped', but happily? what makes progress a good thing? no, that's the wrong question. what is good about societally-defined progress? why can there not be a pervasive desire for spiritual and intellectual progress? are these types of progress too intangible to yearn for? does the human mind need an icon of progress, such as the dollar bill or the louis vuitton pattern, to simplify enough for quick processing?

..9.. three gorges dam

the three gorges dam is the world's biggest hydropower project, producing 18.2 GW, which is a hell of a lot. still, only 5% of China's energy demand by the time it's finished in 2009 (still much construction). the project has been quite controversial - environmentalists complain that it will ruin the water quality and emit tons of greenhouse gases as flooded areas decay. they also say it will endanger protected species, such as the Yangtze dolphin and the Chinese sturgeon. human rights activists argue that displacing a whopping 1.3 million people is a crime. (these people's homes have been underwater since the dam started being built, so must be relocated) the communist government seems to have an affinity for dominating nature, and this truly incredible engineering feat does indeed appear to dominate nature, steadying the rapidly-changing water level and making the river more navigable for ships between Shanghai and Chongqing (which is the world's second most populous city with 32 million people!). i think i've asked everyone who could speak more than 2 words of english what they thought about the dam. most say that it's great, and whatever the government says is true, and they're being taken care of completely. some admit that the older people are upset at having their houses destroyed by the permanently risen water level. they say young people see it as an opportunity to get out of a difficult farming lifestyle. (people who are relocated receive the equivalent of about $1,250 in compensation) one man was quite frank with me, telling me this dam had ruined the water quality in his city and people were angry about it. the government makes empty promises. and he can't protest because he needs a permit for that, which of course the government won't grant. it's very interesting to see the way people grapple with a communist government.

..8.. yangtze river

the cruise has turned out to be more fun than i imagined it would be. a relaxing 4-day journey brought us to some cute touristy spots.

1 - Pagoda built leaning against a cliff, to grant easier access to a high temple.
2 - Minority fishing village with men who row or pull boats upstream with ropes, depending on water depth
3 - Three gorges dam

The last picture in this series shows a small white square on the hill. As we sailed along, we saw many of these - 175 meter marks, which is where the water level will be by 2009. Sad to see the huts that fall below that mark.

..7.. yangshuo

a day in yanshuo found us taking tai chi, kung foo, and chinese language classes. and the food here is so delicious!

we took a walk through the live food market, which sold turtles, snakes, frogs.....and dogs. these dogs looked much too cute to be eaten!