18th November: Hangzhou, China
No, not me! The Qiantang River in eastern China has the largest tidal bore in the world, which is visible on around 120 days per year. Today’s tide was set to be the second highest of the 60 this month (only marginally less than yesterday’s), so we hoped there was a good chance of seeing it. We’d not been able to find much information, except for tide times for some relatively nearby cities. This is slightly ironic given the Qiantang also has the oldest recorded tide timetable in the world!
Regardless, we set out early on the metro and then a commuter train for a town 50km east of Hangzhou that had come up a few times in our research. The journey to Yanguan only cost £1.30 each and we picked up delicious coffee, porridge, and some vegetable and tofu buns for less than £2. This is where things became a little trickier as we didn’t know the time of the bore – was it at high tide or at some point on the floor tide? There wasn’t a bus towards the river for over an hour, so we ordered a taxi instead and were dropped at a ‘wave watching park’ gate. Clearly, this is a big thing here! The person on the gate confirmed that they expected a bore today in about an hour. Yes!!
We found a good spot, with an escape route to higher ground in case the tide was higher than expected and a sight line down river that would give us warning time to get there. 20 people were washed away a few days ago, although all were rescued and, from the video, it looked like they were being idiots. At spring tides or in storms, it is common though for water to breach the banks. We stood, eating our snacks and looking intently for movement 15km downstream at the bend in this giant river. 90 minutes passed and nothing had happened but there were enough people around to give us confidence that we weren’t waiting for nothing.
Then, with the maximum zoom on my camera I thought that I could see a tiny white line. Even at 25 km/h, this would take 30-35 minutes to reach us, and to begin with it seemed to barely move. I still wasn’t sure. Soon though, we could see the movement of a crashing wave. This was it, the silver dragon! Inexorably, the visible wave grew bigger and rougher, still well over 5 km away when we began to hear a low frequency rumble. The dragon’s roar. Anticipation was palpable, just as it’s been for people watching this phenomenon for over 3,000 years. How must this incredible show of natural power have felt back then?
Soon, the rocks I’d been watching were swallowed and the wave was heading our way. It appeared to travel faster and faster as it did so. 3 km across the river, we could see the wave advance up the southern shore. Suddenly, it was upon us! No need to run, but the speed, height, and power of the water moving upstream was immense! I hadn’t appreciated that the hydraulic jump would be more like a tsunami than a traditional wave, as the whole tide flowed in behind the front. The turbulence as the downstream flow and upstream tide clashed felt as powerful as the breaking wave itself.
On the train back, I felt an enormous wave of relief wash over me too. The past few weeks have been a real struggle for us, especially after I got ill and ended up in hospital. It’s a privilege to travel and learn about the world and see its beauty, but we’ve been burnt out. This was the final time-sensitive activity we had to achieve and now we plan to take it easier for a week or two. All of the tricky journeys have been done and we’ve seen everything we were unsure that we’d be able make it to. It was like the feeling of the first sip of beer in the pub, knowing you’d smashed the final exam! My blogs might be a little shorter than usual for a while, although I still enjoy the process of writing them so, then again, perhaps not!
Back in Hangzhou, around Wushan Square, we found some bread-based snacks. There seems to be visible Muslim population in Hangzhou and, especially importantly in China, that means the chance to eat good bread. Kaja had a freshly baked sesame naan and I had a spring onion bread pancake. This powered us up the hill on a chilly and dull afternoon into the park. The City God Temple sat high above but was unfortunately closed for renovations. Still, we walked on and were rewarded with a view down over West Lake in the fading light. We will slowly explore here a little more over the next couple of days.
We both needed a good hearty meal and a vegetarian buffet was just the ticket. These are great, with massive variety and high-quality food for a cost of around £3. My favourite dishes were the yams in gravy, roasted pumpkins, and tofu with green beans. I can feel it doing me good already! Now, time to chill, let what we’ve seen sink in, and try to properly recover.
