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Splendid China
... a journey across the mainland
Photographs and text: Nilesh Korgaonkar
The Yangtze is one of China's two mighty rivers
and the Chinese civilisation has evolved along it.
This seems to be true even today. One learnt that further
downriver, near the town of Yichang, the Chinese are building the biggest
multi-purpose dam in the world. When completed, it will form a huge artificial lake,
some 500 sq km in area,
submerge entire villages and towns, displace some two million people.
Tickets for the three day boat ride were available at
Chengdu. But I chose to buy my ticket at the river docks at Chongquing
where I could choose the boat I wanted to travel on. Off season bargains were
available,
and a boat ticket without the frills were cheaper.
 Day one aboard the boat was uneventful. On the second day the boat
docked at Shaobizhao at 2 pm and there were a few hours on hand to visit a
spectacular twelve storied temple built on a lonely rock face. Great
photo op.
The highlight of the cruise was the journey through the three gorges
on the third day. The first of the great gorges came at about dawn on
the third day and the captain had the good sense to wait at the mouth
till it was sufficiently light. An announcement produced a flurry of
activity and a charge to the upper decks before the boat resumed its
journey through the gorge. Awesome.
 At about 7 am, the boat arrived at Wushan and there was a five hour
halt so that passengers could undertake a tour of the Lesser Three
Gorges which were along the narrower Daning River. It was a long way to
the mouth of the Daning river where a flotilla of smaller boats waited
to take us on the three to four hour tour up the river to see the
gorges. The small boats powered their way upriver for about 50 km,
halting along the way between the lesser gorges where one could buy
food, drink and trinkets at exorbitant prices.The Lesser Gorges were
gorgeous, no pun intended, and I was immediately reminded of the
misty mountain watercolours that one associates with China.
I disembarked at Yichang. There was nothing much to see further
downriver when the Yangtze broadens out and enters the plains.
Everything at Yichang from the hotels to the airport was named Sanxia
(Three Gorges). I spent a delightful Sunday at Yichang's public park
where people were practicing for an opera and ballroom dancing. I met an
American journalist and his partner who had come to do a piece on the
dam. I almost sighed in relief at the sight of someone who could
speak English. It was quite a change after having almost mastered
the art of travelling with sign language.
Since my visa was about to expire I had to take the flight to Guangzhou
(formerly Canton). Guangzhou is one of the oldest cities in China and
has been the capital of Guangdong province for over a thousand years. It is a crowded
and chaotic city resembling any large Indian city with narrow streets,
unruly traffic and noisy taxis. Shamian Island with its British
architecture reminded me instantly of the stolid neighbourhoods of Bombay, like Fort
or Ballard Estate.
 I was shocked to death at the snakes, maggots and worms that they were serving
drooling diners at Guangzhou restaurants. I beat a hasty retreat to
Shamian Island and lunched at a snack bar which did not
have such grotesque items on its menu.
By the evening I was on the train to Shenzhen. The train, a spanking
example of Chinese technology, resembled any of Europe's high-speed trains. Every
coach had an attendant who greeted passengers as he checked our tickets. Not
surprisingly, the 190 km journey to Shenzhen was covered in under 90 minutes.
 What was farmland just about a decade ago is now glittering Shenzhen. Glass
towers. Broad roads. Glitzy shopping malls. And cellular phones.
Shenzhen is a living example of what can be done if the government wants to get things
done. During the last five years it has
recorded an annual growth rate of 45 per cent, surely unmatched
anywhere in the world. Cheap accommodation was hard to find and I
spent a few hours hunting for a cheap room
The next day I walked in and out of the McDonald's cafes, fancy air
conditioned private buses and shopping malls. I hopped over to
Splendid China, a tourist spot that provides a window into
China. 'Visit all of China in one day,' says the brochure.
 It
was all there: Beijing's Forbidden City, the Great Wall, Tibet's Potala
Palace, the Shaolin Temple, the gardens of Suzhou, the rock formations
of Guilin, the Stone Forests of Shilin and even some sights in Taiwan.
The catch: Everything was reduced to a fraction of its real life size.
Exceedingly popular with the locals, Splendid China
is a bit like Disneyland, minus the rides.
The next day I picked up my rucksack and literally walked into Hong
Kong across the Lo Wu border crossing, next to the railway station.
As I did so, all I could think of was the wonderful fortnight I
had spent in this land of cuddly giant pandas, misty mountains, swirling
rivers, deep gorges and fragrant noodles sauteed in huge woks.
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