Yichang
Hubei Province
People's Republic of China

June 25, 2010

My Dear Cruise Aficionados,

After the Nile and the Amazon, the Yangtze is the third longest river in the world.

The Yangtze or Chang Jiang is also the longest river in Asia. That really is saying something when you consider that the Yellow River #2 is 5464 km (3395 mi), the Mekong #3 is 4909 km (3035 mi), and the Indus #9 and Brahmaputra #10 are each 2909 km (1808 mi). Numbers 4-8 are rivers in Russia that run from south to north in Siberia and flow into the Arctic Ocean.

The Yangtze rises in the west from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau and empties into the East China Sea  The river flows 6300 kilometers (3915 miles) while draining eleven provinces from Qinghai to Shanghai.

Zhangjiajie
Hunan Province
China

James Cameron
Sierra Retreat
Malibu, California
USA

June 28, 2010

Dear Mr. Cameron, 

Cc: Family and Friends, 

“Avatar! Avatar!”  sing out the ladies at the  Zhangjiajie National Forest Park souvenir stands. They are hawking large holograph photos of majestic karst mountains. 

I hadn’t the foggiest notion why Avatar would be an integral part of the sales routine.  My best guess was that even here, in Hunan Province, far, far west of the modern, affluent cities on the east coast of China, even here in the Wulingyuan Scenic Area the local vendors are aware of recent popular cultural events. 

Then I did a little research.  

Dehang

Hunan Province

China

 June 30, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank heavens!  I remembered to bring along my Leki Super Micro easy-lock, collapsible walking stick.

The hilly path along the Yuquan riverbank is narrow, rocky, muddy, slippery and flooded in places.  Treacherous.  I should have rented a pair of straw shoes!    

Feeling my way along the track, with one hand holding the stick and the other my camera, there is no way I can also use my umbrella as I approach the Liusha waterfall.

Fenghuang

Hunan Province

China

July 1, 2010

Dear Fellow Tourists and Travelers,

Here's what the guidebook says about Fenghuang Ancient City, a popular tourist destination:

"In a round-the-clock siege from domestic tourists - the Taiping Rebellion of the modern age - this riveting town of ancient city walls, disintegrating towers, rickety houses on stilts overlooking the river and hoary temples can easily fill a couple of days.  Home to a lively population of the Miao and Tujia minorities, Fenghuang's architectural legacy shows distressing signs of neglect, so get to see it before it crumbles away under a combined onslaught of disrepair and overdevelopment aimed at luring marauding tour groups." *

Do you see what I have to put up with here?  I must tolerate "distress," "disintegrating," "rickety,"  "disrepair," and "overdevelopment."  Then I must navigate "siege," and "marauding tour groups."  And finally, I have to endure such guide-book prose, opaque and contradictory, that my head is throbbing!  Will this place be "riveting" or "crumbling"?  And what, in the name of all that's holy, is a "hoary temple"?

{C}

Golden Leader International Hotel
Jishou
Hunan Province
People's Republic of China

July 2, 2010
8:00 am

My Dear Comrades,

Yesterday, July 1, was the 89th Anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in China.  That must  explain why, after more than twenty four hours, my laundry has not yet been returned to my room.  Maybe the washers and driers took the day off to celebrate.

{C}

"Music is the space between the notes"

Claude Debussy - French Composer (1862-1918)

"The notes I handle no better than many pianists.  But the pauses between the notes - ah, that is where the art resides."

Arthur Schnabel - Austrian Classical Pianist (1882-1951)

En Route to Changsha

Hunan Province

China

July 2, 2010

At 7:00am the railway station was crammed.  There were no seats so I am standing amidst several thousand other travelers.  The information board flashes the platform number for my train and a long queue moves towards the gate.  

The train was scheduled to depart at 7:15.  How will so many people be able find their proper car in such a short time?   There must have been twenty cars on this train and my luggage-laden quick-step-trot along the platform seemed endless.

The disciplined crowd moved slowly yet efficiently and everyone found his car and assigned seat.  At the appointed time the train pulled out of the station, headed north and then east.