Day 19: Weekend Trip (Baidi Cheng / Shen Nong Stream)

Day number 19, day 2 of our 3D2N 3 gorges weekend trip. Woke up very early in the morning at around 5 plus in the morning as we have to meet up with the rest for breakfast on board. All of us struggled to wake up that early as we were still trying to get more rest after sleeping late for so many days!

After breakfast was back to our rooms to rest for a little moment before we were called out again for our first activity for the day, the visit to Bai Di Cheng, 白帝城. It was a place where it shows some interesting historical images and objects. Here are some of the photos taken!

白帝城

Group Photo
Edy, Junru, Jarold, Me, Mingyu, Gloria, Roy


Nice View


Some of the Guys
Roy, Mingyu, Me, Jarold, Edy


Group Photo
with the White Swan


Group Photo
with the white dragon


Group Photo
at the Pavilion


白帝城 and me!


MDE Group Photo

After the visit to Bai Di Cheng, 白帝城, we went back on board the cruise to have some rest as well as our lunch before we head out to our 2nd visit of the day. Had around 2 hours of rest in our rooms, with lots of fun of course and headed down to the restaurant on board for our lunch.

After our lunch, we headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile more before we boarded another cruise and headed down the stream which is the Shen Nong Stream, which has excellent scenery that is good for alot of photographs to be taken. The cruise down the stream took approximately around 1 hour or so.

Bridge

Photo
Anyu, Junru, Me, Mingyu, Roy, Edy


Group Photo

When we docked at the bay, we changed to the traditional boats which has 6 men rowing the boat. It was definitely a very difficult and tiring task for them as they have to row the boat with approximately 21 people on board, excluding the 6 crew men. The crew rowed us down the stream which took approximately 40mins before they disembarked and manually pulled the boat, with all of us still on board, with just some ropes or rattan. It is certainly not an easy feat.

The boats

Ready to go!


Rowing hard!


Pulling hard!
*applause!*


Enduring!


My boat with the tour guide

After the exciting and interesting trip, we headed back to the cruise and headed back down stream and back to our original cruise. Back on board, we went for our dinner and went back to our rooms to bathe and of course, have some fun and interesting games such as cards in our friend's room.

Our source of entertainment!

After the games, we all got tired and decided to head back to our rooms to rest for the night as we will have to wake up very early again in the morning the following day!

My Reflections:

After visiting the places today, the trip down the Shen Nong Stream has the most impact to me. Looking at how different the environment is, the men and women over here are all still determined to survive despite their difficulties. For example, the 6 crew men rowing the boat for us on our boat. It is definitely a task which none of us can accomplish overnight.

These men are living in poor living conditions with low income such that they have to come out to row these boats which is only around RMB$30 per trip. This is definitely insufficient for them to get their necessities as they took shifts to come work. This means that they only work around 2 or 3 days per week. When they ain't working, they had to gather herbs or other things which they can do, just to earn an additional income for them as well as their families. Despite their various difficulties, they are still all determined to live well, to enjoy your lives as much as they can, and to make use and treasure of all the things which they have.

By comparing our living conditions as well as their living conditions, I believe that we should all feel very fortunate that with what we have and what we are experiencing now. At the same time, we should treasure all these and not take them for granted.

"No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has"
- Henry Ward Beecher