A Walk in Wonderland

At nine we took off with our cute, young, petite guide named Nicee.  We walked along the river on a marvelous new walkway (built ten years ago after the dam was opened and they were assured they would never flood again).  Now they have developed an entire industry around it.   They have interesting statues, pagodas, flower arbors, and scenic overlooks along the way.  Very pretty.  The arbors had a very pretty purple flower that made us think of the wisteria by Donnithornes back door at West Point, but Nicee said it was a flower native only in this part of the world.  When we got to the river, we turned left and into into the valley...and entered Three Gorges Scenic Spot, a household name in the area.  It is the first large scale folk custom tourist area in China.  It focuses on reveling the existing ecology and experiencing the living conditions and working crafts of the natives.   Multiple landscape elements are harmoniously combined...rocks, waterfalls, caves, springs. 
It was a fairy land.  They had old boats...fishing boats, sampans, canoe type boats...all staged along the path by an expert who must have loved photography!  It was marvelous.  I am not sure I can adequately describe it.
On one little bamboo float was a young girl in traditional costume sitting on a chair singing a sweet little song.  On another boat a young man was steering with a long paddle with a pretty girl holding a parasol sitting at the end of the boat posing for us and waving.  There were three huge decorative paddle wheels made of bamboo stalks that were striking.  Later there was a young girl playing a handmade string instrument and further down was a little bridge to a pagoda with a young couple on the bridge in very dressing clothes posing for us.  The river was a stream by then and just beautiful, with huge mountains going up both sides...very dramatic.  At the end of the valley were about five waterfalls, no real big this time of the year, but very pretty.  In the summer rainy season there is a huge waterfall that comes and goes with the rainfall.
On the way back on the other side of the stream/river we stopped to see a colorful, dramatic, noisy reproduction of a Chinese wedding.  The, to top it all off we saw across the way a family of brown monkeys playing on the mountainside...really very cute...a first for me, I think to see them in the wild. 
We also saw two coffins placed high on the mountain in a shallow cave.  In China, people have traditionally just buried family members close to their home on the hillside...usually they are decorated with bright fun colors so you can spot them as you pass by on the road or river.  Now in the cities anyway, most people are cremated...they just do not have room for them.  There is now way to know HOW they got the coffins to these caves, as many of them are high and isolated.  Lots of these coffins had to be moved (many to museums) before the dam was built...or they would have been washed away down the river.
We are so glad we did this optional tour...it was really very enjoyable.  The walking tour took us about 2 1/2 hours, about 3 miles or so.  The ONLY down of the day was the hazy fog that settles over the river this time of the year.  It is beautiful, mysterious, and moody...but the pictures are blah...