China is one of those countries that has intrigued me for years, but I’ve never really been sure about how to visit it. One obvious concern is its distance from me. Naturally, there is also the massive language barrier; it isn’t exactly like traveling to Australia. In South America and Europe one can generally get around with English and a (poorly spoken) mix of some other Romance language. When I was in Italy I used a strange homemade amalgamation of Spanish and Latin, the two languages I took in high school, and I was usually able to get myself understood. Mind you, I got a lot of laughs too, but I the important thing was that I could express myself in a reasonable fashion. I think my ability to clearly express myself in rural China would, to say the least, be drastically less.
Nonetheless, China is home to a couple of major attractions and spectacles that I am dying to see. First and foremost, no surprise here, is the Great Wall of China. However, a close second is the Three Gorges Dam, located near Yichang, China. The dam is, after the Great Wall, the second largest construction project China has ever undertaken in its entire (rich, long, and varied) history. The scale of the project is truly mind-boggling. For starters, the towering, thick wall of concrete spans nearly 1.5 miles. The project used just a hair under 1 BILLION CUBIC FEET of concrete. The Chinese were able to drastically alter the very landscape of their country. It is a truly stunning feat of engineering.
While the debate rages on as to whether or not this is beneficial to the environment, I would merely like to see it in person and admire what human beings can accomplish when they put their minds to something. It may save tons of carbon from being released into the environment (through China burning its coal reserves.) It may also displace millions of people and destroy biodiversity. I’m not exactly qualified to speak definitively on the subject. I just know that I want to see it, because the thing is BIG.
The best way to see the Three Gorges would have to be by boat. The geography of China makes this an ideal way to see as much of the country as possible. You can cruise the Yangtze River and in only seven days go all the way from Chongqing to Shanghai. That is covering roughly 2000 kilometers of China, all in the span of a single week. This not only seems like a manageable vacation that won’t jeopardize your career, but also one with other benefits as well. On a boat you can enjoy the presence of an English-speaking guide while simultaneously avoiding horrific bus trips from crowded city to crowded city.
The mighty Yangtze, the third largest river in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon), is a major cultural and economic force in China, and it really is no wonder as to why it is called the “Main Street of China.” If and when I finally get the money to make the trip, the Yangtze is on my to-do list. China is undergoing incredible, rapid change, and I feel that if I don’t make it in five years, the place will be so utterly different as to be nearly unrecognizable.
