Is that really a Dead Goat Floating in the River?

Well, we just dealt with the most difficult portion of the trip thus far- our trip down the Yangtze River.

The last few days we have been in lockdown. Josh wanted to call this post the Yack-tze River. What was supposed to be a scenic four day cruise wasn’t at all, and food poisoning hit both Josh and Luna. Needless to say, it’s been a very rough few days. We left Beijing with high hopes of beautiful scenery, lovely meandering rivers and blue skies. We were all really missing nature and hoping for some R&R aboard the Yangtze Explorer.

We anticipated that our scenic cruise would be an experience of great beauty, as the cruise travels along the Three Gorges Dam and some supposedly spectacular scenery. Well folks, this ain’t the Alaska cruise. When we arrived in Yichang, our starting point, the sky was even more dirty than Beijing’s- it’s an industrial town of new factories, spewing dirt, coal dust and poison into the air. We couldn’t see the ground upon arrival as we were flying in. It was unreal.

When we arrived at the boat, we found it docked in an industrial area, surrounded by cargo ships that carry coal, cars, sand, rock and other supplies. Although the boat was very nice, the scenery was shocking. The Yangtze is the third largest river in the world. It is only permitted to be used for industry- meaning that the government has barred any pleasure craft use on the water. It’s like a freeway for boats. Much of China’s commerce is still done along this river, and factories line its shores, spewing out black and white smoke into the air. We were grateful for our balcony, but couldn’t go out on it much of the time, as the smell was overwhelming. When we were outside the first afternoon, Luna looked at me and asked, “Mama, can I please have my air mask?” It’s sad to be in a place that is supposed to be beautiful, and perhaps once was, but has been destroyed by industry. The water is brown, as most large rivers are, but there is a barrage of things floating in it, creating small islands of trash. We saw everything from bottles to styrofoam, paper and wood to entire large dead animals, and tons of shoes.  Enough shoes to shoe the entire nation of China.

It wasn’t all bad, mind you- there were some pretty parts, but they were completely overshadowed by sickness and environmental destruction.

China is a magical place full of rich culture, history, cuisine and people. China has had a difficult past, and now is advancing so incredibly quickly in terms of its economy, that it is dealing with some intense growing pains. The gap between the very rich and very poor is so great that it seems impossible to bridge. This is a place where you don’t know what things contain, how safe any products actually are- because there is such a lack of standards and even the policies in place are mostly unenforced. People are destroying the environment to get ahead and create something of themselves, because for so many years- the opportunities for advancement were impossible. If I was persecuted for pursuing any dream and then had the opportunity to do so, I too, might do whatever it took to help my family. Yet, there is such destruction here. The US purchases 17% of the exports from China. Are we partially responsible for the destruction in China because of our great demand? How much stuff do we need? And at what price?