China - Page 9

I spent my birthday, August 18, on a 30 hour epic train ride from Xian to Chongqing, a bustling city on the Yangtze river. This was such a cool city, and if I had known what a neat place it was immediately, I wouldn't have booked a boat ticket out for the very next morning! Here is a view back at the docking area from my Yangtze river boat, the cruise that took us down to Yichang over the course of a few days.

Some of the Chinese people taking photos of each other on deck, they always make such athletic stances to take pictures. And they seem to often take pictures of each other in front of the biggest or most modern buildings in any given city or town, I think they're proud of the country's progress.

Thomas, me, Rocco, and Alex, a group of Germans I met and travelled with for a while. Thanks to Sophie, the unpictured German, for this shot!

The river boat stopped at a number of cities along the way. These were the greatest places, the three gorges dam project will flood all of these locations when fully completed. And as this project has been underway for 10 years now, no money has been invested in these cities in all that time, it's all going to the construction of totally new cities further up the hillsides. As a result you can really get a glimpse of the drab, depressing communist architecture that represents China before its 1990's economic boom. The banner in this picture reads "Welcome to Fengdu, the Ghost City - the Origin of Fancy Music in China". I'm not quite sure what that means.

Another view of doomed Fengdu, the new city can be seen under construction across the river.

People plucking and washing chickens in Fengdu.

A much more appetizing sight than the above chickens, a local street chef with a full selection of ingredients and spices.

This slow-motion stampede of loud Chinese tourists woke me up in my boat cabin one morning. So I stuck my camera out of the little window and snapped a picture.