Day Four- Sailing the Yangtze River (July 4, 2011)

We woke in the sailing along the Yangtze River from Wuhan to Yueyang where we visited a school that is sponsored by the cruse company. 

The city of Yueyang is populated with 5 million people and it used to be greatly effected by the flooding before the building of the Three Gorges Dam.  The 4th grade students performed dances and songs for us and we visited the classroom where 70 students are tuaght at one time.  The school is closed for vacation at this time, so they only came to the building to greet us.  Education in China is very different from the United States.  While both start at the age of 6, in China they are required to attend school for nine years before taking a test that will determine if they continue with academics or they go to a vocational school to learn a trade.  Thirty years ago, every student was required to learn Russian as a second language, but in the mid1970s, that changed to English.

While Laura took a nap in the afternoon, I attended a lecture on the Yangtze River.  The third largest river in the world behind the Amazon and the Nile, the Yangtze provides China with a quarter of its ariable land and has three reaches or levels.  The upper level, furthest to the west, is known for its rapids and schoals that even required the use of trekkers to physically pull boats upriver.  They did this naked to reduce the need to replace clothing which became expensive.  The middle reaches have areas of cliffs and mountains which provided the perfect location for the building of dams to prevent flooding in the lower reaches.  The lower reaches are the widest and reach to the East China Sea and , as we saw today, the most boat traffic of any area in China.  It was like the beltway in some parts!  There are over 100 bridges along the Yangtze and they are planing to build at least 20 more in the next 10 years.

After the lecture, we had a traditional Chinese meal.  I have been learning to use the chopsticks and I think I am getting pretty good!  There was little food on my shirt and I was able to use them until my thumb began to cramp! :)

Tomorrow we travel through the Three Gorges Dam!