三峽篇     (Day 19-Day 21)  

Day 19-20 (21,22-7-2000)

This morning, I go to the testing centre very early and take a rest there,
chatting with my friends for a whole hour. Waiting for long long time, ultimately
our teacher, Miss Wong Yu arranged us to have a look on the tests dealing with the strength of the concrete. After the class, Dick and I go to buy harmonicas piano>, and it cost us only $15 each, which is quite cheap as compared with that in Hong Kong.

This afternoon, we are not assigned any works as we have to pack up for the trip to the Three Gorges and Small Three Gorges in the coming two days. Should I
treat all the friends truly without taking any cautionary measures?

After dinner, we go to ZiGui to get aboard on the Ship Rainbow. The facilities on the ships are very ... Kel Lei(騎呢). The pipes supply us with muddy water, the water used to clean the 'horse bucket' is directly sucked from the YangTze, inside the rooms, there are cockroaches, spiders, flies and mosquitoes.
This night, we play Italian bridge up to 2 o'clock.

This ship Rainbow is sailing on the Yangtze, the surface of the river is quite
peaceful and calm. Moving steadily, wind blows softly towards us, and we feel a
little bit cold. The characteristic cool breeze of the night, together with the sky without any clouds. What a beautiful view!

The trees, rocks, mountains, and all the other things, are moving slowly away from us, equipping them with some animations: it's because I and the ship are moving together. The moon is neither full nor dim, but it gives its silvery lights and surrounds the passengers with its mighty lights.

There are many stars and they say no word. We all can see lots of stars in the
sky, several times more than that we can see in Hong Kong. I feel that the stars are not very much dimmer than the moon. On the water surface, no other ship is sailing with us, whistle does not sound. Though the lightings at the head of the ships are very strong, the beams of the light cannot cut through the darkness. At the end of the light beams, we can just see some fogs. Guiding lights along the two sides of the river, are sleepy and lazy, use their dim shines to guild our ship travelling through the river safely. At some bottlenecks, the width of the river only allows the ship to pass with the sides of it very close to the lands. The mountains seem to be touchable by the hands. When will the ship park at the pier??

At 430am, we are still on the board of the ship. The time for sunrise has not yet come. We wait and wait, though we cannot see any obvious sunlight, we can feel
the sunrise, it's near! We breath and the air is warmer than before. The sky in the east is stained with reddish orange coloration, the profile of all the things
around us is becoming even clearer than ever. Birds flying across the sky, bring to us hopes for the new day.

It's five o'clock now. We still can't see the sunrise, and we have to admit that the mountains have shielded the sun and leaving us no possibility of seeing the
sun waking up from the horizon. Sigh, sometimes, we are very sure that something are impossible, and, not knowing why, we insist to try until there is totally no hope. Man purposes, God disposes.

Very tired, and that's the reason of our sleeping during the trip in the Small
Three Gorges. Small Three Gorges are located on the 'TaiLing River'(大靈河). Some mountains have special shapes and are made to be tourist spots. For example, we can see the Law's Village, which is a village built near to a fountain. We can also have a look at the interface between the small Three Gorges and Tiny Three Gorges. An interface of muddy and clear water. Unfortunately, our trip is
arranged with the time schedule very tight. We don't have chance to look at
everywhere carefully and to 'feel' them.

We can see some children selling Sanxia rocks. They are nothing special.
Originally, I don't want to buy even one bag of them. However, after an old lady told us that the children are earning money for the sake of going to the school. I bought two bags of them. Although I am not sure if the old lady had cheated me for making money or not, I am contented as I have helped the poor children.

It's lunchtime again. We have the lunch for 2 hours, ironically, we spent 1.5
hours awaiting the dishes to come inside the dinning room of the ship without
air-conditioner.

The ship continue to sail until five o'clock and arrive at the White King's Castle(白帝城).There is a party tonight. I am too tired to play and go to sleep at 9:00pm.  

Day 21 (23-7-2000)

Early at 4 o'clock this morning, I go to the deck alone, wishing to see the
sunrise and the stary sky. Unfortunately, the sky is almost total covered with
clouds. The clouds are very thick, and I can't manage to see the inner side of the cloud.  
I meet Hung from PolyU and we chat for half an hour. He is a Year 2 student.
PolyU offers an alternative for her year2 students that they can choose to work
for a year in the field of civil engg before they continue with their study for
the bachelor degree.

At 8:00am, we get on the shores and arrive at the White King Castle. We walk
along the path on the mountain for half an hour. Inside the White King Castle,
there are many spots of the 'three countries', there are also spots like the model of ToFu (杜甫) and Guanyin(觀音)'s temple. There are many places worthwhile to have a look.  Since the schedule is very tight, we don't have time to see everywhere thoroughly.

The ship departs for the ZiGui pier and we are given time to see the scene of the
Three Gorges along the way. All the mountains surrounding are moving backward
quickly with the ship sailing on the river. We try our best to prevent missing
any beautiful view. The 'arrow passing' cave, the MoShan-12 mountains(巫山十二峰)... all are very famous here. Among the twelve mountains, the 'goddess' mountain is the most marvelous one. We only need to have some imaginations, together with the stories introduced by the tour guide, we can be engulfed into the world of myth.

There are many caves along the way. I am convinced that if the books for attack in the 'fighting novel's' world do exist, then some of the books should have been hidden up in some of these caves, awaiting those we have the 'destination' to get them. The nearer the ship is to the lower stream, the more houses we can see.
These houses are built on the mountain, between the short trees. If we don't look at them carefully, it is difficult to point out any 'inharmonity'.
...After the finishing of the Three Gorges' project, most of the mountains, trees and houses we see will be buried under the water.

Though the scene of the Three Gorges is very impressing, the living environment
during the trip is not that good. When we arrive at the training centre at 5
o'clock eventually, we even have the feelings of arriving home.
After the life in these two days, Jordy and Uncle Yip are a bit sick.

I sleep at 8 o'clock.  

序                                                武漢篇                                        三斗坪篇(一)   

三峽篇                                        三斗坪篇(二)                              三斗坪篇(三) 

神農架篇                                   最後的歌

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