8th November: Wushan, China
This hotel is one of the more interesting places we’ve stayed so far. There wasn’t a huge amount of choice in Wushan, so we’ve ended up in a place where the shower in our room is directly above a squat toilet! It’s just about manageable but I do wonder how many people have slipped in and twisted ankles or worse. Thankfully, it’s just 2 nights!
One interesting thing I’ve noticed in China are the number of real time air pollution trackers. Screens give levels outside all building sites, tourist centres, or often just in squares or at roadsides. It’s very hazy in Wushan this morning and the screens are telling us that the PM2.5 concentration is 72 ug/m3. For context, the World Health Organisation guidelines state that a daily average of 15 ug/m3 shouldn’t be exceeded more than 3 times per year. I suspect we’ve been well above this for most of the past few weeks!
At the wharf, we joined the groups of Chinese tourists queuing for boats up the Daning River. It was a little nippy, especially on the water, as we departed from Wushan. It seemed that to sit down anywhere in the three-level boat you had to become a ‘VIP’, which was achieved by purchasing some instant coffee. We refused that and were glad of the space to stand at the back and enjoy the views without (too many) distractions.
The Daning is a tributary of the Yangtze, famous for its deep canyons. We passed under the suspension bridge on the edge of town and into Longmen Gorge. Cliffs towered on either side, although not as high as they’d once been before the deluge. Below us sat another abandoned town, Longmen, formerly home to subsistence farmers and fishermen. Under 2 more incredible bridges, we passed into the lagoon we’d seen from the railway station on arrival. The high-speed line shot into the mountainside, topography no match for modern Chinese infrastructure.
After rounding a little island, with the small amount of remaining steep land being farmed, we entered Bawu Gorge. This was more impressive than the first of the Lesser Three Gorges, with sheer rock faces ascending many hundreds of metres above the deep waters. The combination was enough for me to feel a little acrophobic but also incredibly awestruck. One of the high caves, which appeared inaccessible, had an ancient coffin placed inside. Such ‘hanging coffins’ were a traditional burial in parts of China inhabited by the Bo and other, now-homogenised, ethnic minority groups.
Entering the third gorge, Diciu, the scenery somehow became even more spectacular. The rockfaces had stalactites descending into the water. Mandarin ducks slowly swam by. Impossibly, a temple clung to the cliff with an access walkway stretching kilometres along a ledge. As the walls of the gorge grew tighter, we were shepherded into smaller boats. It felt as if you could reach out and touch the cliffs of what were now dubbed the ‘Tiny Three Gorges’. Greenery touched the water, and more coffins hung above. As we reboarded our boat for the return journey, three monkeys climbed down to the water side. These were the first wild monkeys Kaja had seen! I believe they were rhesus macaques, which are protected in the area and often fed along the banks. On our return journey we saw two others, clambering the steep cliffs on either side of Bawu Gorge. Such is the terrain, the only way for these two creatures, barely 50 metres apart, to meet would be to swim.
Back on dry land, we popped in a 60p taxi to avoid the long walk back up the hill and had another delicious portion of hot pot. I can feel it doing me good already! Nothing too much else to share about the centre of town apart from another gloriously named shop – this time a cosmetics place called She’s Yeast. Straight to the top tier with Datong’s finest Mingr and C.Comelicious and the Biemlfdlkk (yes, those are Ls), which is apparently a golf wear chain. Back in the room to do some research and admin, the police came to check on us. We’re not really sure why – are visitors that rare? were they bored? did the hotel not register us properly? Either way, once they’d found out that we were leaving tomorrow they were all smiles and left us to it. They didn’t even ask for our passports. I suspect they just couldn’t be bothered with the hassle.