Yeah, so I absolutely refuse to cave in to my Id and not follow through. I'm going to finish typing out these China travelogues if it kills me.

July 6, 2004
My mom and I had a heated discussion this day over what the date was. Being on vacation, as you all know, you lose track of the days--everything revolves around meal times and departure times, as it should be. Last night on the boat, everyone attended the Victoria Rose Fashion Show (!) in which all of the crew put on Chinese fashions through the times and dance and such. At this point, I think I've lost most of my irony, since I was clapping with delight along with everyone else. I even went and sat in the front row, y'all.

July 7, 2004 (The Gorgeous Gorges)
We hit (well, not literally) the first of the three gorges today: the Xiling Gorge. It was unbelievably lovely: it was sunny and the weather was hot, and everyone piled out onto the front desk of the boat, occasionally being blasted by the ridiculously loud horn (it was hilariously jarring). We sailed through the city of Yichang and also visited the site of the Three Gorges Dam, which is what promises to be the world's largest dam, ready in 2009. Much of the day was spent passing through various shiplocks as well, which was an interesting, rather cloistered experience in itself. Anyway, the Xiling Gorge is known to be the most treacherous of all of the gorges, and the most difficult to traverse.

July 8, 2004
Today we sailed through the lots and lots and lots of gorges. We sailed through the last two gorges: the Wu Gorge (the most serene, apparently) and the Qutang Gorge, which is known for its seclusion. We also took a day trip to get on a boat to wind through the Lesser Three Gorges, a whole area off of the main, muddy Yangtze, I believe, that will get swallowed up by the impending raising of the water. The Lesser Three Gorges was one of my favorite parts of this entire trip. The water was this creamy greenish color, absolutely stunning compared to the yellow Yangtze, and the gorge walls were tall and craggy. There were tracker paths carved into walls, and there were "hanging coffins" high up on the gorge walls -- bodies buried there hundreds of years ago. So much of what's there will be under water, someone on our trip commented that it would be an interesting scuba diving expedition in a few decades. Like the lost city of Atlantis or something. There were tons of fishing boats along the way, the the lower hills were dotted with little farmsteads that will be history soon. 1.3 million people will have to relocate because of the dam, since the waters will rise 175 meters.